Details added (first version posted on 14:32)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 18
Trend:
The Azerbaijani state is built on solid national and spiritual pillars, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev delivering a speech at the nationwide festivities on the occasion of Novruz, the Azerbaijani national holiday.
“We preserve, perpetuate our culture, art, native language, holidays. The 25-year period of independence demonstrates that only states built on national roots can achieve success, only those states have a future,” said President Aliyev. “The values of Azerbaijan, our national-spiritual values are above all for us. I am glad that the younger generation is also growing up like that,” he noted.
The younger generation gets education in the spirit of patriotism, national spirit, and today every citizen of Azerbaijan, who loves the Motherland, is proud of it, added the president.
The head of the state noted that the achieved success strengthen Azerbaijan, give a reason to look into the future with optimism, and at the same time is assessed on a global scale.
“Our internal situation is stable. The Azerbaijani people, the unity between the people and the government is the guarantor of this stability. Our policy is supported by the people and this is the main factor of stability,” said President Aliyev adding that everything is perceived in comparison.
The president said that the unpleasant events taking place today in the region and world, bloody clashes, wars, of course, are worrying Azerbaijan.
“We don’t live in isolation, and if the situation in our region worsens, risks increase, and then, of course, this can have a negative impact on us. Therefore, our main task is to protect our country, our people from the existing and future risks, and we are doing that. Therefore, stability, prosperity, civic unity and solidarity that exist in our country today, of course, are our greatest asset, and we protect it. I want to once again note that it can only be preserved by unity between the people and the authorities,” noted President Aliyev.
The head of the state added that security is ensured in Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani people live in safe conditions.
"There are all opportunities for workmanship. Unfortunately, in this period, the situation has worsened both in our region and on the Eurasian continent. We, of course, must further strengthen the security in our country. One can say, there are no internal risks, threats in
Azerbaijan. And we protect ourselves from external risks. We protect ourselves from both physical and possible ideological risks,” said the president.
“During these 25 years, the Azerbaijani people clearly see that our policy is the most correct one. We are the masters of our destiny. We, ourselves, determine our policy. We can withstand any external influence, and the recent history has demonstrated this. At the same
time, recent history has shown that if we acted in line with desires dictated by external forces, we could face great problems.”
“I have repeatedly said and want to say again that our independent policy is the source of our pride. This shows that the Azerbaijani people themselves determine their future. At the same time, our independent policy also protects us from existing risks,” he added.
Five or six years ago, the situation was completely different in the neighboring regions, noted President Aliyev adding that nobody could imagine that there will be hotbeds of conflicts, wars in these regions, hundreds of thousands of people would perish, and millions of people would become refugees and migrants.
“But all this is already a reality. Why did this happen?! Of course, due to external interference. We know this, and I have always expressed my position on all these issues,” he said adding that meanwhile, these countries weren’t ready for independent life.
“There was no unity between the people and the government in these countries. There was widespread dissatisfaction in these countries,” added the Azerbaijani president. “Therefore, there were such unfortunate events. All this is happening before our eyes, and once again demonstrates both to our people and to the whole world that today Azerbaijan really is a country, which is distinguished on a global scale by its policy and has become an example for many countries.”