Russia, Moscow, 4 April / Trend corr R. Agayev/ The relationship between Azerbaijan and Russia, having centuries-old history and traditions, has assumed a special significance, the Director General of the Trend news company Ilgar Huseynov said speaking at the conference 'Azerbaijan 2008: Breakthrough for Development' in Moscow on 4 April.
According to Huseynov, the Azerbaijani diaspora is one of the largest andrespected onesin Russia. Business cooperation between the countries is enhancing and the cargo turnover is rising. "The Russian culture and Russian language are thoroughly protected in Azerbaijan. The Slavonic University is successfully operating, and the joint humanitarian projects are being implemented in the field of literature and art," he said.
" Azerbaijan is the dominating country in the South Caucasus, and is a serious and sedate partner. Therefore, this is quite enough to suppose that Azerbaijan and Russia are important partners for long-term prospective," he said.
He said that along with the official statements on support to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, several Russian channels broadcast films and information pictures about Nagorno-Karabakh of quite contrary idea.
"In addition, we, representatives of Azerbaijan's national press, expect large understanding from Russia. Of course, it is possible to bring evidences regarding independence of the press. I support independence, but the reality is that the Azerbaijani community judges Russia's position not only through official statements, but also through the activities of Russian press. Unfortunately, biased materials regarding Azerbaijan results in increasing tensions in the inter-ethnic and international relations, and contributes towards the destruction of the political processes, dissidence and adhesion," he said.
Speaking of the situation in South Caucasus, the General Director of Trend said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia presents obstacles in general development of the region and its integration into worldwide economy and policy. "First of all, this situation does not meet the interests of Azerbaijan as a most dynamically developing country of the region," he said.
Irrespective of the whole complex of the problems, Azerbaijan could achieve realization of the regional energy and transport projects of global character. "However, these successes disturb the destructive forces. We face large number of foreign propagandistic materials describing the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict wrongly, putting Azerbaijan's position at stake in the negotiations process on the conflict settlement. I think that the efforts of finding solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in an averaged and simplified manner are wittingly made unproductive," Huseynov said.