"UN Security Council membership is of great political significance for Azerbaijan"

Azerbaijan has been nominated to the non-permanent member of the UN Security Council election 2011. This and other important issues for our country were answered in an interview to AzerTAc special correspondent by Azerbaijan's permanent representative to the UN, ambassador Akshin Mehtiyev.

Mr Ambassador, please, tell us about candidature of our country and significance of the non-permanent member to the UN Security Council.

UN Security Council is mainly responsible for preservation of international peace and security. Each member of the Security Council has a single seat, and except for the procedure issues, all decisions are adopted by nine votes, providing coincidence of positions of five permanent members of the Council. On the other hand, membership to the UN Security Council is of great political significance for the state.

Currently, UN Security Council consists of 15 members, of which 5 are permanent members from USA, Great Britain, People's Republic of China, France and Russia. The remaining 10 countries are elected for a term of two years as non-permanent member to the Council, five of which are rotated every year.

The elections to the non-permanent member to the UN Security Council for 2012-2013 will be held in October 2011. Azerbaijan, Hungary, Slovenia and Armenia have all announced their intention to run for the single Eastern European seat. But, some time ago, Armenia withdrew its nomination.

Because of refusal to accept Armenia`s nomination, contradictory opinions are heard for the past few days. For example, Armenian press confirms that the country was not going to officially run its candidate. What is your opinion of this issue?

Armenian media reports suggesting with reference to official sources that Armenia did not put forward its candidate in this election and has no such intentions contradict the facts and arouse surprise. The truth is that Armenia's permanent representative to the UN officially declared that Armenia withdraws its nomination in 2011 elections and runs as a candidate for non-permanent member to UN Security Council 2032-2033.

Of course realizing that all its efforts to be elected as non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council will come to grief, Armenian leadership decided to withdraw the candidacy of the country.

Recent publications of contradictory opinions in Armenian press pursue the aim to conceal the official Yerevan's foreign policy reverses. Based on the Charter of the United Nations, special priority is given to the country`s contribution to safeguarding international peace and security. In this context Armenia, as an aggressor country, does not meet the requirements of UNSC`s non-permanent member and the election would demonstrate that clearly.

The election campaign and predictable position of the UN Security Council's member states regarding the candidacy of Armenia is a striking example of that. I am sure that if Armenia takes part in the election, it would be able to rely just on a few votes. Thus, the UN Security Council membership will a pipe dream for Armenia until this country ends its aggressive policy.

Mr. Ambassador, how can you estimate an election process and the election itself?

As I've said before, EU members Hungary and Slovenia announced their intention to run for the single Eastern European seat along with Azerbaijan. The analysis gives grounds to predict that both candidates have a good chance to be elected and I find it difficult to make any observations. Of course we wish Azerbaijan to win the elections and become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and we are doing our best to achieve this goal. Unlike other candidates, Azerbaijan has never been a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, our country is bidding for the seat for the first time. We hope that our rivals and other countries will act in accordance with a principle of fair UNSC membership. In the context of discussions at UNSC, one of the priorities is an elimination of predominance of several political forces in the Council. Results of the elections will show the willingness of the United Nations to abandon monopolistic stereotypes reigning in this organization since the first day of its establishment.


/AzerTAc/