Today, Azerbaijan
Jan 18 2008

Armenian Foreign Ministry: "Signs of despair are obvious in
Azerbaijan"

18 January 2008 [11:14] – Today.Az

Signs of despair are obvious in Azerbaijan, as announced by the
spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Armenia Vladimir Karapetyan.

According to the department of press and information of Armenia’s
Foreign Ministry, Vladimir Karapetyan thus commented on the
announcement of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who stated that
the economic positions of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the international
arena can not be compared.

"Considering the style of the announcements of Azerbaijan’s
President, signs of despair are observed in this country. Azerbaijan
fails to comply with international standards or develops against the
dominating international tendencies almost in all spheres", the
spokesman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry noted.

He said panic is caused by the growing understanding of the
international community of the issue of national self-determination.
Moreover, he noted that Azerbaijan’s indicators in economic and
social spheres are also vulnerable.

"The announcements of President of Azerbaijan regarding achievements
in economic development and the state system establishment date to
the publications of the reports of influential international
organizations, which prove that Ilham Aliyev’s announcements merely
mislead the people of Azerbaijan", he said.

According to him, Armenia has improved its indicators occupying the
28th place by the scale of economic freedom of the Heritage
foundation and the Wall Street Journal newspaper, while Azerbaijan is
on the 107th place among 162 countries.

"In line with the Freedom House indicators of democratic development,
Azerbaijan, like it was in the previous years, has been included on
the list of not free countries in the political sense. Armenia also
outstrips Azerbaijan by 50 points among 177 countries on the list of
"Frustrated countries" of the influential US edition Foreign Policy",
the spokesman said.

Armenia outstrips Azerbaijan almost on all international standards,
including human rights and freedom of speech, Karapetyan announced.

He also said that according to the World Bank, despite the
Azerbaijan’s significant reserves, this country has achieved
Armenia’s level by the indicator of per capita GDP not long before.

"And, gradually, despite the militaristic announcements of the
leadership of Azerbaijan, I would like to note, that in experts’
opinion, it will take another 10-15 years to Azerbaijan to achieve
the level of Armenian armed forces, even if the current economic
growth rates are preserved", the spokesman noted.

Karapetyan considers that the unsubstantiated statements of the
Azerbaijani leadership aim to mislead its own population to distract
it from real problems, which Azerbaijani people face in daily life.

/Novosti-Armenia/

URL: