"Azerbaijan still believes that Armenian leadership will finally give up its irrational and non-constructive policy"

Head of the department for political analysis and information at the Azerbaijani President's Administration, Elnur Aslanov, has shared his thoughts about the Moscow-hosted conference on the theme “Socio-economic development of Southern Caucasian countries: problems and prospects” with AzerTAc's Russian capital-based correspondent.

“The essence of the conference is that Azerbaijani, Russian and Kazakh political analysts have come together to discuss a wide spectrum of problems, in particular socio-economic prospects and future development format of the Southern Caucasian region.”

Aslanov said: “As we know, one of the major barriers to ensuring stable and effective development of South Caucasus is the fact that certain groups, in particular, the countries which support them, try to impede this development. I mean Armenia, which has taken a non-constructive position and has been pursuing an irrational policy in the region, trying to destabilize the situation and hindering the establishment of peace and stability here. This conference is aimed at discovering major factors creating barriers to effective development of the Southern Caucasian region. We`ve discussed not only problems, but also factors for prospective development of the region.”

Aslanov touched upon Azerbaijan`s economic progress, calling the country “a recognized economic leader in the region”.

“As members of the Azerbaijani delegation – which included parliamentarians, independent political analysts and representatives of the center for strategic studies – Azerbaijan is today the region`s leading integrator of economic processes and large-scaled projects. Given this aspect, Azerbaijan is trying - by different means - to set a dialogue with Armenia and promote the establishment of peace in the region.”

“We`ve repeatedly expressed our readiness for dialogue and declared, on all levels, that our country is ready to continue peace talks till the end. But, naturally, each process has its limit, including that of patience. What we currently have on the negotiation table is the Madrid principles, which Azerbaijan accepts with several reservations. And Armenia, unfortunately, has not yet given its response regarding the issue. But Azerbaijan still believes that the Armenian leadership will finally give up its irrational and non-constructive policy and begin to play a more active role in establishing peace and stability in the region.”

“Today Azerbaijan is ready to offer the de jure citizens, who live in the Nagorno-Karabakh, all the economic and social preferences, which residents of Azerbaijan`s other adjacent cities enjoy. The experience of other states shows that coexisting is much more profitable - both politically and economically – rather than seeking to live in isolation, having neither your daily bread nor real prospects, and living with just illusions of the so-called independence.”

Commenting on whether Azerbaijan`s just position is accepted by the expert community, Aslanov said that sometimes it is difficult “as together with us other sides also declare their position”.

“However the major goal of such conferences is making Azerbaijan`s position on different issues – in particular the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and also the country`s domestic and foreign policy priorities – known to the Russian expert community. We, surely, believe that we will be a success in this, and we don`t stop on what we've already achieved. Such meetings will be continued and they will serve only to strengthen relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, in particular, between the expert communities of our countries,” said Aslanov.


/AzerTAc/