Alexander Sevastyanov: Armenia still has a chance to find a way out with honour and return Karabakh and the occupied lands of Azerbaijan

What is the main idea of the book? What was the motivation for writing this book?

For many years I have been observing with anxious how many external forces endeavor to involve Russia in the global conflict of civilizations, moreover to involve not in that party, which I consider to be fair. Therefore, it seemed to me necessary for a long time to write the book, which would promote our politicians to have more objective view to the Muslim East.

You know Russian people’s problems, regretfully, our power ignore them as a result they don’t find the response behind the Kremlin walls. Suddenly I was surprised to see that amid many representatives of different nationalities that operated in the Duma at that time, including the president of the Federal national-cultural autonomy of Azerbaijanis of Russia Sojun Sadykov, only Azerbaijanis treated with understanding in a companionable way our internal Russian problems.

Later, when I paid visit to Azerbaijan, I absolutely changed my view to Azerbaijanis because I closely got acquainted with Azerbaijanis in their natural conditions, I was, as they say, in the prayer house, the scientific institutions, the countryside, and traveled through all Baku …

Frequently I came back to the hotel after two o’clock in the night, walked alone without any support. I did not see any scowl, I did not hear any rude or coarse word and I did not see any menacing gesture. For me the Azerbaijan people have appeared absolutely different – such as we did not know Azerbaijanis during the Soviet ruling. When we lived within the borders of one state, we somehow did not look very narrowly to each other.

I understood that it’s time to look narrowly and see in Azerbaijanis very potential and important ally in the East and Islam world. It was very the starting point. Further After that we agreed with outstanding historian Alexander Borisovich Gorjanin, who is the serious scientist and known journalist. Further, everything started to grow as a snow clod: the information and judgment passed and as a result we got the book that we wanted.

Nevertheless, is it possible to assert that at the present time, the biased information about Azerbaijan, especially regarding the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, prevails in Russia?

Absolutely. I should tell you that unfortunately it have developed historically. After all Azerbaijanis were always the true allies of Russia. They never changed neither imperial Russia, nor the Soviet Russia, but they never had the defenders neither in the imperial Kremlin, nor in the Soviet Kremlin. They didn’t have their own lobby. With regard to Armenian lobby, they have always been very strong, let alone Jewish lobby, which in many respects defined the ways of our country’s development. Azerbaijanis did not have the real defenders in the imperious circles. I think, it is the greatest injustice, which should be corrected.

Literally one of these days, we witnessed when the secretary general of The Collective Security Treaty (CST) Nikolay Bordyuzha has made a scandalous political and ethical mistake and said “in case of the military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan we’ll have to fight on Armenian side”. It’s unbearable. If I was the president of Russia then it would be Bordyuzha’s last words on that post. But we see that it is indicative. We see, how unfortunately the misunderstanding of the political situation wholly control the situation, particularly concerning the Nagorno Karabagh.

In your book you have given a place both to the history of the conflict occurrence and the perspectives of the problem solution. What is your basic message as the author of the book? What did you want to tell?

I would like to tell the following. Armenia still has a chance to find a way out with honour and return Nagorno Garabagh and the occupied lands to Azerbaijan the inevitability of such act will only accrue every year. It’ll be better for Armenia if it understands sooner. But if the situation develops up to a confrontation then I’d be on the side of Azerbaijan if I was at the power in Russia.

/APA/