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President Aliyev: Today, Azerbaijan is modern country, true to its history and traditions, rapidly developing state on global scale

Politics Materials 29 November 2019 14:38 (UTC +04:00)
Today, Azerbaijan is a modern country true to its history and traditions, a rapidly developing state on a global scale
President Aliyev: Today, Azerbaijan is modern country, true to its history and traditions, rapidly developing state on global scale

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 29

Trend:

Today, Azerbaijan is a modern country true to its history and traditions, a rapidly developing state on a global scale, President Ilham Aliyev said at a ceremony on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Baku State University, Trend reports.

The history of the Azerbaijani people is full of tragedies, he said.

"Why did we live as a colony for many years, for centuries? Why were we part of other states? Why is the history of our statehood very limited? At that time, even the possibilities of independent states were limited. Let’s take the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, for example. Its leaders could not run the country. Heads of foreign military missions made decisions. Even our first national flag adopted at the time was changed by a foreign military missionary. An ultimatum was made – historians are well aware of this. The leadership of the independent state was given an ultimatum, and the flag was changed. After that, the current tricolor flag was established. So even in those days, independence was half-hearted and incomplete," the president said.

The head of state noted that Azerbaijan lives in true independence today

"We determine our future ourselves. We make decisions on our own today. Today, the will of the people dominates in Azerbaijan. Today, Azerbaijan is a modern country true to its history and traditions, a rapidly developing state on a global scale. We are not dependent on anyone and should try never to depend on anyone. Therefore, we must be strong and patriotic, our economy must be even stronger, we must have political will," President Aliyev said.

"All this is present in the current government, and everyone sees that no-one can interfere with our affairs. No matter how hard they try, no matter how much lies and slander they spread, all this does not bother us because the people support us, as is evidenced by recent opinion polls. The vast majority of the population supports our policy. The vast majority of the population does not see an alternative to us. And who can such an alternative be after all? Even their patrons have already turned their backs on them. We know this for certain. In fact, I can even share some operational data with this audience. Today, the anti-Azerbaijani circles, foreign circles are already saying quite openly that there is no traditional opposition here, there are separate corrupt which can’t be relied on. Therefore, they have reduced their funding, which is why they are rushing around," the president said.

"The youth is seen as the main target. They have chosen young people as the main target, they want to confuse them, poison their minds, raise them against the people, the Motherland and traditional values. This can’t and won’t work because the Azerbaijani youth is patriotic, it loves its homeland and is attached to it. But there is such an intention, and we must know about it. Teachers must also know that."

The head of state noted that teachers should not only give students knowledge, but also educate them.

"In general, educational work in Azerbaijan should rise to a new level. We must revise ideological work, there are weaknesses and gaps there. Those who do not love us, including the structures financed by the Armenian lobby, are taking advantage of these gaps, especially today when there is uncensored Internet. More than 80 percent of our population are internet users. A free and democratic society has formed in Azerbaijan. There are free media outlets. Therefore, it is possible to conjure up any lie. After that, discussions are organized around this lie, this lie is already portrayed as a fact and attempts are made to poison the minds of young people. We cannot allow this to happen. Young people must know history well. If they know history well, they will be convinced that never in our history has any outside power, any circle alien to us wished us well," the president said.

"On the contrary, they tried to oppress us, subjugate us, rob our wealth and humiliate us. Otherwise, a significant part of our centuries-old history would not be colonial. I want to say again: in the history of Azerbaijani people, the periods of our independence have been very limited – precisely because we were deceived and oppressed. This cannot be allowed to happen, and we will not allow it to happen. We stand firmly on our feet. No-one can interfere with our affairs. No outside force can influence our will. They may denigrate, spread lies and conjectures, but it does not bother us. The main thing is to live with dignity, to live as worthy and courageous people attached to the Motherland, to build, to repulse all foreign forces and to continue our development path."

According to the head of state, Azerbaijan is developing exactly like that today.

"Therefore, we are treated with increasing sympathy in the world. It is no coincidence that the countries that make up the absolute majority of the world community vote for us. This was the case eight years ago when 155 countries voted to elect us a member of the UN Security Council. And this is how we were elected. Diplomats know quite well that voting usually takes place within one day and new members are elected very quickly. In our case it lasted three days. Three days and 16 rounds. Why? Because the country competing with us did not withdraw its candidacy. In each round, we won with a huge margin but could not get the required number of votes," the president said.

"Usually in situations when there is a big difference in votes, the losing side withdraws its candidacy. But it didn’t. And it was a friendly country. I was surprised: what's the matter? We found out later that it did not have the opportunity to do so. Some large states did not provide this opportunity and wanted to prevent our membership. I am going back to this issue again. If representatives of these countries tell you that “we love Azerbaijan, we want its development”, don’t believe them. If they did, they would provide opportunities. I don’t feel like naming them now; those interested can do some research. For 16 rounds and three days, they tried to hinder our membership. But then what? They asked our representatives to withdraw Azerbaijan’s candidacy. They said that they would help us next year and wanted us to withdraw," said the president.

"For these three days, I was in direct contact with New York. I said no way, we will participate in the vote until the end even if it takes a whole year. But if it lasts a whole year, then we can paralyze the work of the Security Council. Only after that was the competing country instructed to withdraw its candidacy. How did this happen? Most countries are fed up with this system, they are tired of it. Those who voted for us used to be colonies just like us, they were also oppressed, ravaged and robbed. Their patience has also run out."

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