CIS is useless organisation–Aliyev

ITAR-TASS, Russia
Dec 23 2006

MOSCOW, December 23 (Itar-Tass) — Azerbaijani President Ilkham
Aliyev has said that CIS is a "useless organisation, which dies not
give anything to Azerbaijan from a practical point of view."

Speaking in an interview with the Echo of Moscow radio broadcasting
station, Aliyev said that CIS was a good opportunity for the leaders
to meet and talk. "One should not set too high requirements to CIS,
describe it as a demon-like institution, or expect too much from it,"
the Azerbaijani President stressed.

In his opinion, no organisation of that kind — neither U.N., nor CIS
– settled any global problems. "Who is working on the settlement of
conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh, Moldova and Georgia? Is it CIS? No,"
Aliyev said.

At the same time, he described GUAM as a "rather efficient’
organisation. He reminded that the U.N. had adopted a resolution
on frozen conflicts on the initiative of GUAM. "All the separatist
conflicts were brought together in a single format within the GUAM
framework. Previously the West believed that Abkhazia, Ossetia and the
Dniester Region have separatism, and Nagorno-Karabakh has a national
liberation movement," Aliyev said.