President Aliyev: Azerbaijan seeks stronger bonds with all neighbors, including Iran UPDATED

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reaffirmed his country’s desire for constructive and positive relations with all its neighbors, including Iran, during his speech at the international forum “Facing the New World Order” at the ADA University in Baku on April 9.

President Aliyev noted that the country is looking forward to an important visit from Iran’s President Pezeshkian, Caliber.Az reports via local media.

“We are waiting for President Pezeshkian to pay a visit to Azerbaijan this month. We consider this visit as a very important with respect to the future development of bilateral relations and regional development,” said President Aliyev. He added that recent high-ranking visits between the two countries had been encouraging, especially following Iran’s presidential elections.

“There have been several visits of high-ranking officials from both countries in recent months. We've been very encouraged by the election process in Iran, which led to the victory of the President, and with the messages, which we receive from Iran. So, we want to have good relations with all our neighbors, including Iran. And there is quite a substantial part of economic and transportation agenda, because we talked about Middle Corridor,” President Aliyev said.

The President also addressed a sensitive issue concerning the terrorist attack against the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran, which occurred over two years ago.

“Yes, we cannot forget tragic events. And we are absolutely sure that it was an organized act of terror against Azerbaijan. More than two years have passed, and immediately after the terrorist act was committed, the terrorist appeared in the media giving interviews. It overshadows relations, and our hope is that the new government will fulfill the promise of the previous government - not only the person who committed this terror act, but also those who were behind him and those who sent him to attack the Azerbaijani embassy, will be punished,” said President Aliyev.

The President also discussed Azerbaijan’s strategic relationship with Georgia, emphasizing their shared history and partnership since the countries gained independence.

“Relations with Georgia are of strategic importance for us,” President Aliyev stated. “And due to the historical connections between our peoples, our mutual past as being non-free and non-independent, and also from the very beginning of the period of independence, Georgia and Azerbaijan demonstrated very high-level of mutual understanding, partnership, friendship, and actually managed to transform the region of South Caucasus into a strategically important,” he added.

In his remarks, President Aliyev also touched on Azerbaijan's leadership in fostering cooperation within the Turkic world, underscoring the shared cultural and historical bonds among the Turkic countries.

“Azerbaijan is a country, which always played very active role in cooperation between countries of the Turkic world,” the President said. “We are united by history, ethnic roots, language similarities, culture, and traditions, and we want to see organization (Organization of Turkic States– red.) more consolidated and more result oriented. For that purpose, Azerbaijan is doing its utmost. From point of view of interaction, between member states, I think we have a very good atmosphere,” he added.

President Aliyev highlighted Azerbaijan’s leadership in fostering cooperation within the Turkic world, particularly through its support for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

“Azerbaijan played an important role in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus becoming an observer in the Organization of Turkic States. We were among those who actively advocated for that. President Tatar was invited by me to attend the Informal Summit of the Organization in Shusha, and he was with us with the flag of Northern Cyprus,” said President Aliyev.

“So, we are always with our brothers. Our policy is always very clear and straightforward. We don't have any other agenda other than how we can be helpful to our brothers in Northern Cyprus, who deserve to have their own state. They deserve it by history and by their actions,” he continued.

Referring to the 2004 Annan Plan referendum on Cyprus, President Aliyev criticised international double standards:

“We all remember the referendum, which was initiated by then-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, when Turkish Cyprus voted for unification, and the Greeks in Cyprus voted against unification. And what happened after? Southern Cyprus was invited and became a member of the European Union. Was it fair? Of course not. Is it double standards? Of course, yes,” he noted.
“But unfortunately, not many politicians want to talk about that. They prefer not to, in order not to have a headache, because one can imagine that they can create a lot of headaches, and headaches are not the most harmful things they can do. But with respect to Azerbaijan, I think among our brothers in Northern Cyprus, there is no doubt that we will be with you until the end, until the independent country is established, and of course, recognized by the international community,” the President stressed.

Touching on Syria, President Aliyev criticised its former leadership for its pro-Armenian stance:

“Unfortunately, during the previous leadership, Syria took a very pro-Armenian and anti-Azerbaijani position,” he said.

“There were a lot of political contacts between the Armenian leadership and the Syrian leadership. Now today’s Armenian government thinks that nobody remembers that. Now, when we see that they (Armenia) are trying to send humanitarian assistance to Syria. It once again demonstrates Armenian hypocrisy, and I hope that the new Syrian government will not allow these hypocrites and enemies of the new government to try to find the ground in Syria. So, we support the new government of Syria,” President Aliyev stated.

The President offered candid reflections on the role of certain Western institutions and media platforms, expressing concerns about their objectivity and transparency.

“What President Trump started to do is very promising, but I think that he should not stop. USAID, of course, is the number one monster - it is a completely corrupt structure,” said President Aliyev.
“Radio Liberty and Voice of America – it is very good that they have already stopped. But it's not enough. Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Amnesty International, Transparency International - all this infrastructure of his political enemies must be totally made dysfunctional,” he added.

Additionally, President Aliyev highlighted Azerbaijan's economic independence, particularly in reducing its reliance on international financial institutions.

“Azerbaijan has, for many years, almost completely reduced its dependence on international financial institutions,” he noted. “We stopped cooperation with the IMF soon after I was elected President first time. With other financial institutions, we either completely emptied the portfolio or very close to that. Our direct foreign debt is something more than 5 billion US dollars only. So, it's about less than 7% of our GDP, which is an indicator that we are not in need of financing,” the President added.

By Vugar Khalilov