Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 14
Trend:
It would be better if the Armenian president focused on his country’s terrible economic situation, instead of telling the French companies tales, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
He was addressing a meeting with members of the business council of Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF) in Paris.
Talking about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, President Aliyev expressed concern over the activity of some companies from Europe, as well as from France, in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent areas.
“Not only Nagorno-Karabakh, but also the adjacent seven districts are under the Armenian occupation,” the president reminded. “Some companies operate illegally in those territories, and this is unacceptable.”
This violates international law and Azerbaijan’s legislation, President Aliyev said, adding that Azerbaijan is taking serious steps to raise the issue on international arena.
Azerbaijan is also appealing to international judicial institutions on the matter, he said.
“I would like to express my concern and urge the companies operating illegally in our territories to refrain from that activity,” added the president.
“That activity won’t bring any big profit, but will bring many difficulties,” he added.
“This doesn’t correspond to very good, friendly relations between our countries. I understand that these companies do it at their own risk, but my duty is to simply warn them to refrain from this,” noted President Aliyev.
Ilham Aliyev also said he was surprised when a few days ago the Armenian president, speaking at the MEDEF, tried to discredit Azerbaijan and its economy with completely unfounded allegations, instead of convincing investors to put money in his country.
“He was speaking about innovations and said Armenia is a country of innovations,” noted President Aliyev. “Frankly, we in Azerbaijan laughed so much, because as they say: if you are so smart, why are you so poor?”
The fact that Armenia has no natural resources doesn’t mean its people must suffer from that, said Azerbaijan’s president.
“Most developed countries, including France, don’t have natural resources,” he noted. “However, they develop through good governance, transparency, reliability, standards, education, knowledge and innovation.”
“Therefore, instead of telling the French companies tales, it would be better if the Armenian president focused on the terrible economic situation in his country, where more than half of the population has no prospects for the future, living below the poverty line,” said President Aliyev.
“According to their official statistics, 60,000 people leave Armenia every year, while our data shows that this figure nears 100,000. If that country was so good and attractive, people would have preferred to stay, but not to leave,” added President Aliyev.