JEYHUN MOLLAZADEH: OPPOSITION’S PREDICTIONS HAVE NOT PROVED CORRECT
President of the USA-Azerbaijan Council Jeyhun Mollazadeh provided the meeting participants with comprehensive information on the pre-election situation in the country. According to him, the opposition circles and media have claimed lately that long absence of president in the country would cause disunity within authorities. Developments, however, have proved the groundlessness of these claims. After Ilham Aliyev was appointed Prime-Minister, the authorities and pro-governmental forces have unanimously backed him up. Speaking of the situation of the opposition, Jeyhum Mollazadeh said they would have had much better chances if had managed to nominate a single candidate.
As for the economic situation in Azerbaijan, he told of the positive changes taken place in the country indicating the propriety of the policy chosen for realization of the economic reforms. The revenue from energy projects in 2005 is expected to double the state budget of Azerbaijan.
Jeyhum Mollazadeh also stressed the Armenia – Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Garabakh had not yet been resolved, and over 1 million refugees have not yet returned to their native lands. At the same time, he reminded that Armenia had passed a special law forbidding signing any document taking Nagorno-Garabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan that contradicts Armenian obligations and commitments to the Council of Europe. Jeyhum Mollazadeh stated that demands for urgent resolution of the conflict would have been strengthened after the presidential elections, and urged the U.S. - one of the Minsk co-chairs – to intensify its efforts in this relation.
Present at the debates were representatives of the governmental circles, non-governmental organizations and diplomatic corps.
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