Today, Azerbaijan
May 27 2005
Azeri ambassador in the USA Hafiz Pashayev: “We work intensively to
annul Section 907”
27 May 2005 [13:50] – Today.Az
“President Ilham Aliyev is due to visit the United States of America
this year. I can not say anything on the exact date of the visit.
Head of state will pay a visit to Washington this year”.
APA was told by Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of
Azerbaijan in the USA Hafiz Pashayev.
The ambassador explained the reason why the USA renders less aid to
Azerbaijan than other South Caucasus countries. “One of the reasons
of less aided of the USA administration to Azerbaijan is that our
country is developing economically. The USA government takes into
consideration the needs of the state while it aids this state. As the
economy of Azerbaijan has developed such aids are not needed so much.
I consider that, Azerbaijan should develop by the account of its own
internal recourses, internal potential”.
Hafiz Pashayev stated that aid will be rendered to Azerbaijan by the
order of the USA State Department. “The exact number isn’t known for
the time being. The volume of the aid may be ether increased or
decreased. As far as I know, 53 million dollars will be allocated to
Azerbaijan this year”.
Azerbaijani diplomat said that intensive measure is implemented in
the direction of annulling Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act.
“We are working seriously on this matter. We have a lot of allies in
the USA government; the majority of the government members support
our position. However, the congressmen have influence on adopting the
decisions individually. There are a lot of congressmen who support
Armenia so far. However, the environment in the Congress has changed
a lot and we are working in these processes with definite strategy.
The opportunities for annulling the Section 907 will increase in case
the internal situation in Azerbaijan changes a little bit”.
Hafiz Pashayev disagreed with the opinions that the number of
Azerbaijani citizens with immigrant status increases in the USA. “I
don’t know any Azerbaijani immigrant in the USA. There are
Azerbaijani refugees but not political immigrant there. The majority
of the refugees are Azerbaijani citizens who married Armenians during
the former Soviet period. They are living in the USA for some
reasons, but are still Azerbaijani citizens. Besides, there are many
Jews from Azerbaijan in the USA”.
The ambassador said that there is no obstacle for the extradition of
ex-speaker Rasul Guliyev to Azerbaijan. “We have not legal juridical
status for demanding his extradition to Azerbaijan on the other hand.
That is because interstates contract on mutual juridical aid and
extradition of criminals doesn’t exist between Azerbaijan and the
USA. Therefore this matter remains open”.
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