Baku, December 18, AZERTAC 

Chief of the department for socio-political affairs of the Presidential Administration Ali Hasanov gave an interview to the host of the Hesabat show on the ANS TV channel.

- I come across the attempts to undermine stability in Azerbaijan at the level of individuals. Representatives of the state and policemen are attacked. People who commit such crimes seem to forget the dark days of 1991-1992. I want you to share your views on these issues. What is the result of this?

- As you may know, as time passes by, of course, generations change too and new ones forget difficult, days and period of embarrassment, anarchy and chaos. That is why, the new generation’s attitude to stability make us surprised. You mentioned some individuals. Small groups of individuals, peoples linked to anti-Azerbaijani forces of some international circles and small organizations represented by them make such attempts.

These attempts are enough just to kill the mood a little bit. This is because the state, I reiterate, is very strong. The state is able to control its internal life, norms of public life, is capable of preventing violations, our laws are working, law enforcement bodies are vigilant . I do not believe they can succeed under such circumstance.

- In particular, what is the danger of such actions? Probably you agree with me that radicalism is observed in some religious forces. They set a mosque on fire and take some steps in this direction somewhere else. I think reasons for more thorough analysis emerge when we approach to these processes, in particular, on the grounds of the rising pressure on Azerbaijan, at least, because of the Khadija Ismayilova…

- How are these issues seen from the Administration’s perspective? If I say that the citizens of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani worshippers lead these developments and these actions are staged on their own, it is not true. A citizen of Azerbaijan tends to have peaceful, stable and normal life. We observe this in our everyday life. There are wahhabits you mentioned, shias, nursists and people belonging to other religious. But there are foreign forces that seek to confront them to Azerbaijani state and confront one to another and achieve their goals in this way. Stable situation in Azerbaijan is not beneficial to many.

- There is another question. The tone of official media reports concerning the Azerbaijan-West relations is changing, I observe. I mean we tried to prove in our dialogues, debates with the West before that we had no problems related to human rights and freedom of speech. But today, in the light of the developments in the United States of America, Fergusson, and death of innocent people, Azerbaijan seems to prove the following: look at the world including the USA and the West, your situation is poor too. Don’t we change our priorities as objectives? Do we remain recommitted to our major goal? We must again protect human rights, freedom of speech or step aside. If the situation is poor even in most developed countries, everything can remain poor?

- We tried to prove to the whole world for long time that Armenia is an aggressor and Azerbaijan is a victim of aggression. We thought the world, CoE, OSCE, NATO, USA do not know about it. But it appeared after ten years that OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs know everything. They need to show to the aggressor the force of international law. But they evade this. Against the backdrop of events in Ukraine as well as Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt we saw the firm position of the Security Council and the USA, UN, Western countries, we began to demand from them: before that we told you that Armenians occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, and there are forces supporting them. Why didn’t they impose sanctions against separatists leaders of aggressive Armenia? We began to speak with the West the language they speak. We passed the stage of learning and training. We know what human rights mean. If human rights are indeed important to these circles, they have to restore elementary civil rights of a million people displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh decades ago.

- Statements were voiced that Azerbaijan must integrate into the Euroatlantic structures. Are there any changes or you just modify the course?

- To achieve our supreme goal we of course choose means. One of our means is to establish relations with the Western countries and unite our economic power with them by uniting our interests in the security with any other state, ensure security, establish partnership relations concerning territorial integrity etc.

- Azerbaijan has become more outspoken, sharp and brave in criticizing. Even criticizing the USA is not sudden for the workers of state bodies, ideological machine of Azerbaijan. We have never criticized Russia and Iran so openly and sharply.

- They do not criticize us, this is why. You know, criticism must be based on principles. If democracy, human rights and freedoms, freedom of speech and press, territorial integrity, security of people, which are western values, are advocated and protected as much as in the whole world, our attitude to criticism of some circles is normal. But they systematically want to make us confess what we do not have. If they, so to speak, disregard the rights which are related to them, then, of course, we respond to them. Both Russia and Iran, and the People`s Republic of China established with us relations on the basis of principle of non-interference into domestic affairs. We can give recommendations to each other. We can advice each other on other issues. It is up to a state itself to accept advice or not.