Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 3
By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:
2018 can be described as a year full of many important events both for the whole world and for Azerbaijan, Samad Seyidov, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, told Trend.
“The last year was important from the point of view of implementation of energy, transport and other projects,” Seyidov, who is also chairman of the parliamentary committee for international and interparliamentary relations, said. “The most memorable event of 2018 in Azerbaijan was the re-election of Ilham Aliyev as the president.”
Seyidov stressed that this should be regarded as the most important event of the year, as all other achievements are directly related to this event.
"The Azerbaijanis expressed their confidence towards President Aliyev, and it is natural that the president has been carrying out his work at the highest level,” he said. “Of course, Azerbaijan has achieved great success both in domestic and foreign policy."
Seyidov stressed that such events as including the issue related to Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity in the resolution of the European Parliament, determination of the status of the Caspian Sea, high-level foreign visits, including the arrival of presidents, prime ministers, foreign delegations to Azerbaijan, holding various international forums in the country, the work on Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), the opening of the STAR Refinery in Turkey by the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR can be mentioned.
“These and other achievements testify that 2018 was very successful,” Seyidov stressed.
He said that 2018 was also successful in terms of the development of Azerbaijan’s relations with neighboring countries.
"During 2018, Azerbaijan further developed relations with Turkey, Georgia, Iran and Russia,” he said. “Azerbaijan was able to attract more trust and positive attitude from the Collective Security Treaty Organization than Armenia itself, which is a member of that organization, because Azerbaijan brought Armenia’s non-constructive position, which is contrary to good-neighborly relations, to the whole world."
“2018 was significant for Azerbaijan from the point of view of security,” Seyidov added.
"Choosing Azerbaijan as a venue for holding a meeting between the highest military representatives of the US and Russia, holding a joint Azerbaijani-Turkish military parade and further strengthening our army are of particular importance,” he said.
“Of course, all this influences the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he said. “The recent processes demonstrate that Azerbaijan welcomes peaceful settlement of the conflict, but does not exclude the military solution to the conflict; on the contrary, Armenia is afraid of both peaceful solution and military solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
Seyidov added that 2018 was very successful for Azerbaijan and this gives grounds to assert that 2019 will be even more successful for the development of the country.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.