POLITICS
IN FOCUS OF TURKISH PRESS
The Turkish mass media and political commentators describe Prime-Minister of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev as the most real candidate to the position of President. That is why his each statement or interview is widely highlighted in Turkey: on August 16, the newspapers ‘Radikal’, ‘Zaman’, ‘Aksam’, and ‘Tercuman’ brought to their readers the Prime-Minister’s interview to the Associated Press.
Noting that Azerbaijan has been internationally recognized as an independent state for 11 years, and undergone internal collisions and coup d'etat attempts, the papers cite Ilham Aliyev words: ‘it would be naive to expect that the country of 11 years old who suffered occupation, civil war, several attempts of coup d'etat, still hostile groups inside the country and outside the country is not appropriate to expect that here we have the same level of democratic development that you have western Europe. But the important thing is that we are moving in that direction and it was our choice…’
The Turkish journalists write referring to Ilham Aliyev that Azerbaijan Government will take all necessary measures for the elections to free and fair: ‘The government does not need to rig the election as everybody is well aware that people support us.’