Details added (first version posted on 14:41)
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26
Trend:
As a result of the incompetent and treacherous activity of the anti-national government - the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA)-Musavat tandem - Azerbaijan was practically collapsing, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said.
He made the remarks addressing a republican conference on development of cotton-growing in Barda District on March 26.
President Aliyev noted that the rapid development of cotton-growing in Azerbaijan in the 1970s is associated with the name of the great leader Heydar Aliyev.
“When he came to power in 1969, 300,000 tons of cotton were harvested in Azerbaijan. During the period of his leadership, this figure tripled, and in 1981, one million tons of cotton was harvested in Azerbaijan. After Heydar Aliyev left Azerbaijan, decline was experienced in cotton-growing, as in other spheres, and in 1990, cotton harvest fell from one million to 500,000 tons in Azerbaijan. Cotton-growing was practically disappearing in the years of independence. There were several reasons for this. Of course, it should also be taken into account that we did not have serious financial opportunities in the first years of independence. Azerbaijan was in a very difficult situation. Especially, as a result of the incompetent and treacherous activity of the anti-national government – PFA-Musavat tandem, our country was practically collapsing. Economic, political, military crisis put the country in a difficult situation,” the president noted.
President Aliyev added that those who came to power and had no experience at all did not have any knowledge about the economy, as well as no work was carried out on the development of agriculture.
“In general, chaos, anarchy, instability did not allow our country to develop. Only after 1993 – after the people turned to the great leader and invited him to power, the period of development began and reforms were carried out in agriculture as in all other spheres. I think that the most important decision taken at that time in connection with the development of agriculture was the exemption of all workers from taxes in the field of agriculture,” the head of state noted.
“Meanwhile, the country faced so many serious problems in the first years of independence, and of course, cotton-growing was not among the priority issues both from the financial point of view and in terms of time. The country faced very serious challenges, there were big threats. The restoration of stability, the attraction of big amount of investments to Azerbaijan, the successful implementation of oil strategy as the main means for the comprehensive development of Azerbaijan – all these were priority issues in the 1990s,” President Aliyev added.