On November 15, the ceremony of awarding the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with the prize of the Mikhail Zhukov Fund (Germany) took place in Baku. While presenting the prize, the Chairman of the Fund Mikhail Zhukov stressed that the decision of awarding the President was made due to the successful application of the policy in the sphere of ecology and protection of the environment in Azerbaijan. He said that Azerbaijan holds the 1st place amongst the CIS countries in this indicator, and the conducted work is of a great importance for Europe and the world in general.
In his speech, the President said that Azerbaijan is in the development process and according to the recent reports of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Azerbaijan is the world's leader for the growth of the GDP. However, according to the State Head, there are negative sides of this process the growth of the industrial production has environmental impacts. It is very important to create production and open new workplaces, but it should not bring environmental harm, he said.
The President remembered that a State Ecological Program was adopted recently and the State intends to provide financial support for its realization. The project envisages the clean-up of the oil-polluted lands in the Absheron peninsula, Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea and Baku Bay. Over the period of 5 years, the key ecological questions will find their resolution, because there is a political will and financial opportunities, the President said.
Ilham Aliyev expressed his dissatisfaction and concerns about the ecological situation in the occupied Azerbaijani lands and called them very deplorable. According to him, Armenian aggressors destroy not only historical, religious and cultural monuments, but also cut down trees and burn lands. Many houses in these territories have been pulled down, valuable breeds of tress are collected and furniture factories are built. Recently large scale fire was observed in the occupied territories. They know that sooner or later they will leave these territories, and therefore, they destroy not only monuments, but also houses and ecology, Aliyev said.
The Azerbaijani President made a decision to direct a bonus check in amount of в'¬15,000 to the ecological purposes and charged the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources to define the sphere.