Azerbaijan actively engaged in building bridges between Global South and Global North President Aliyev addresses Shusha Global Media Forum

At the second Shusha Global Media Forum, themed “Unmasking False Narratives: Confronting Disinformation,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke candidly about the challenges his country faces with misinformation in international media.

“Sometimes we are surprised when information about Azerbaijan in international media is true. False information, disinformation, manipulation of facts, and false narratives are all things we have faced for many, many years,” said President Aliyev addressing the Forum on July 20, Caliber.Az reports, citing Azertag.

The president attributed part of the issue to the conflict with Armenia: “There are different reasons for that. One of them, of course, was the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the mobilization of all the Armenian diaspora structures, and pro-Armenian politicians and media representatives in attacking Azerbaijan, creating false narratives, and trying to present Azerbaijan as completely different from what it was and what it is.”

President Aliyev urged for objective reporting on events in Azerbaijan and its neighbouring regions: “We would prefer the coverage of events in our country and in the neighbourhood to be objective.”

“If it is not objective due to some misinformation, we don't mind, but if it is a deliberate media attack, a deliberate attempt to discredit what we're doing, of course, the question is, why it's happening. But I think the more time passes, the more reality in political circles in the West appear to treat Azerbaijan as an equal partner,” the head of state emphasized.

Furthermore, President Ilham Aliyev outlined the country's strategic approach to economic and foreign policy: “We've chosen the way of independence, de facto and de jure, independent foreign policy, self-sufficient economies, fruitful cooperation with those partners who want to cooperate with us. Of course, reliance on domestic sources of potential income, in combination with strong ties in the region, allowed us to overcome most of our economic problems.”

“We just decided to do our homework, to concentrate on our country, on our people, and not pay attention to who said what in the European Parliament or in the Council of Europe. We are absolutely indifferent to that,” the president remarked.

Moreover, President Aliyev also noted the inexistence of unresolved issues between Azerbaijan and Russia: “There are simply no issues that need to be addressed in bilateral relations with Russia, and for quite a long time. And basically, before the signing of the Declaration on Allied Interaction, we have resolved all issues in accordance with the mutual understanding, mutual respect, mutual interests based on the centuries-old history of relations between our peoples,” said the president.

“Over the past time, the intensity of the high-level meetings has increased and there is a great need for that. We held meetings (with President of Russia Vladimir Putin - Ed.) both in Moscow in April and on the sidelines of the Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization early this month. And, there will be certainly meetings by the end of the year, there are a lot of topics,” the head of state added.

President Aliyev also emphasised the importance of fair and transparent distribution of wealth from fossil fuel sales: “A fair distribution of the wealth generated from fossil fuel sales, transparent and absolutely accountable. I can tell you that as time passes, there are less and less attacks on us (related to COP29 – Ed.)."

“Our COP Team is working very efficiently and is actually spending most of their time at different meetings abroad. And our COP agenda is very clear, very predictable, and result-oriented,” the head of state emphasized.

In addition, the Azerbaijani president highlighted the significance of COP29 on the global stage: “COP is a main event on a global scale. This is the number one conference on the international arena."

“For the first time, it is going to be held in the area of the former Soviet Union and the region, and it is a unique chance for us to step into a higher league. Because we are not only organizing, we do a lot on the substance. We launch initiatives. We now actively work with developing countries in order to build bridges between the Global South and the Global North. Our advantage is that we've been chairing the Non-Aligned Movement for four years,” the head of state underlined.

President Aliyev also underscored the nation's commitment to never forgetting the occupation: “We will never forget the occupation, the victims, or our great Victory.” 

“We and our future generations will be forever proud of this Victory. However, we should not only focus on this, we should not constantly exploit this topic and turn it into some kind of symbol. We must move forward," the head of state added.

President Ilham Aliyev provided an update on the peace negotiations with Armenia: “With respect to the text of the peace agreement, as I was informed by our foreign minister, about from 80 to 90 percent of the text is agreed upon. Armenia had to withdraw its reservations and all these terminology related to the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh, which opened the door for normalization.”

“But there are two important issues which must be addressed. At least, at the moment, two. One, Armenia should respond positively to our proposal for a joint application by Armenia and Azerbaijan to the OSCE to dissolve the Minsk Group. Because the Minsk Group has been dysfunctional for many months, and maybe already a couple of years,” the head of state noted.

Talking about the ongoing peace negotiations with Armenia, President Aliyev said: “In the meantime, the process of agreeing on the text [of the peace treaty] is continuing. I don't know when the next meeting of foreign ministers will be. I am now less optimistic because, as you probably know, Prime Minister Pashinyan refused to meet with me in the U.K. The U.K. government proposed organizing a meeting between us on the sidelines of an event in Oxfordshire. But the Armenian side refused. We were surprised.”

“Because just four months ago, Chancellor Scholz organized this meeting in Munich where he participated for five to six minutes. And then he left. That was a kind of modality of the meeting. He would meet with both leaders, and then say some introductory remarks, and then leave. And that was what happened. So, the UK government proposed the same with participation of the Prime Minister of the UK. But Prime Minister Pashinyan refused. If he doesn’t want to talk to me, then what kind of peace are we talking about? If he doesn’t want to talk to the UK Prime Minister, then why did he go to London to Oxfordshire? So, there are a lot of things, which are in deep contradiction, but we will see,” the head of state added.

The Azerbaijani leader also spoke about Azerbaijan's relations with the United States, particularly under Republican administrations: “As for our relations with the US, with the Republican administration, our relations have always been much more productive, fruitful, and result-oriented.”

“During President Trump’s presidency, we enjoyed very fruitful cooperation based on mutual respect and appreciation of each other’s support on different tracks. Our relations with the United States were pretty stable. Despite the ups and downs, which were not initiated by us. There were just exaggerated expectations from Azerbaijan that did not materialize. There was a second attempt to influence our political life, attempts to finance political opposition,” the head of state added.

In addition, President Aliyev shared his recent experiences with European leaders regarding the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty: “Practically all the leaders I met in Oxfordshire just a couple of days ago were asking about Armenia and the peace treaty, as if they had resolved all the issues in Europe and the only thing left for them to be happy about was to see our progress with Armenia."

“I was surprised that in all these conversations, they raised this issue. I never raised issues when talking to leaders of European or any other countries that don’t have a direct reference to me. I concentrate only on bilateral matters, but okay. I tried to explain to them that we didn't do anything different from what those you support are trying to do. The difference is that they failed despite all your billions, while we succeeded,” the president of Azerbaijan mentioned.

The 2nd Shusha Global Media Forum is taking place in the cultural capital of Azerbaijan, Shusha City, on July 20-22.

The Forum, attended by over 150 foreign guests from around 50 countries, including news agencies of 30 countries, three international organizations, and 82 media entities, provides a platform for joint discussions and actions among participants.

The forum will include four panel sessions on "Assessing Impact: Setting the Scope of Disinformation", "Policies and Initiatives for Building a More Disinformation Resistant Society", "The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Reality, Media and Disinformation: Promoting Media Literacy" and "The Climate Movement and Media".

Officials, media and civil society, government officials and businessmen, representatives of international organisations and media experts from various countries will exchange views and experiences at the panel sessions.

These sessions will facilitate discussions among officials from various countries, media and civil society representatives, international organization representatives, and media experts. Participants will exchange views and share experiences on the highlighted topics.

The first Shusha Global Media Forum themed “New Media in the Era of the 4th Industrial Revolution” was held on July 21-23, 2023.