ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
March 9, 2007 Friday

Azeri president calls on fellow-countrymen to be politically active

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliev has called on his fellow-countrymen,
residing abroad, “to be politically more active and to strengthen
their business positions in their respective countries”. This call
is contained in the president’s Friday opening address to the first
forum of the leaders of the organisations of the Azerbaijan and
Turkish diasporas, which is currently under way in Baku.

He stressed, at the same time, that it was necessary “to prevent the
assimilation of Azerbaijanians”. In his opinion, this could be
achieved by means of closer contacts with their fatherland. Aliev
believes the process of forming diaspora organisations “is
proceeding very quickly”. “Our diaspora is a great force today,”
he noted. According to different reports, there are now up to
thirty-five million Azerbaijanians all over the world. The biggest
Azerbaijanian diaspora organisations are now in Iran, Russia and
Germany.

Aliev is also convinced that the Baku forum will permit the diaspora
organisations of Azerbaijan and Turkey to jointly disseminate
truthful information on the realities within the two countries all
over the world. “After this forum, the Azerbaijanian and Turkish
diasporas will operate as one single entity, will coordinate their
efforts and will maintain close contacts with their historical
fatherlands,” Aliev stated. “This unity is most important” due to
the fact that “there is much distorted information on Azerbaijan and
Turkey” all over the world today, he believes.

Touching on the Karabakh conflict, Aliev noted the need to pull out
the Armenian armed forces from the Azerbaijan territories they are
now occupying. “Azerbaijan will never put up with the loss of its
lands and will go out of its way to liberate them,” the president
stated. He also stressed that “Azerbaijan will not allow a second
Armenian state to be formed on its territory,” noting in this
connection that the international law was in favour of his country.
“The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has never been and will
never be the subject of discussion,” Aliev stated.