AZERBAIJAN & RUSSIA IMPORTANT PARTNERS FOR LONG-TERM PROSPECTIVE – TREND NEWS COMPANY’S DIRECTOR GENERAL
TREND News Agency
April 4 2008
Azerbaijan
Russia, Moscow, 4 April /TrendNews corr R. Agayev/ The relationship
between Azerbaijan and Russia, having centuries-old history and
traditions, has assumed a special significance, the Director General of
the Trend news company Ilgar Huseynov said speaking at the conference
‘Azerbaijan 2008: Breakthrough for Development’ in Moscow on 4 April.
According to Huseynov, the Azerbaijani diaspora is one of the largest
and respected ones in Russia. Business cooperation between the
countries is enhancing and the cargo turnover is rising. "The Russian
culture and Russian language are thoroughly protected in Azerbaijan.
The Slavonic University is successfully operating, and the joint
humanitarian projects are being implemented in the field of literature
and art," he said.
" Azerbaijan is the dominating country in the South Caucasus, and
is a serious and sedate partner. Therefore, this is quite enough
to suppose that Azerbaijan and Russia are important partners for
long-term prospective," he said.
He said that along with the official statements on support to
the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, several Russian channels
broadcast films and information pictures about Nagorno-Karabakh of
quite contrary idea.
"In addition, we, representatives of Azerbaijan’s national press,
expect large understanding from Russia. Of course, it is possible
to bring evidences regarding independence of the press. I support
independence, but the reality is that the Azerbaijani community
judges Russia’s position not only through official statements, but
also through the activities of Russian press. Unfortunately, biased
materials regarding Azerbaijan results in increasing tensions in the
inter-ethnic and international relations, and contributes towards
the destruction of the political processes, dissidence and adhesion,"
he said.
Speaking of the situation in South Caucasus, the General Director of
Trend said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia presents
obstacles in general development of the region and its integration
into worldwide economy and policy. "First of all, this situation does
not meet the interests of Azerbaijan as a most dynamically developing
country of the region," he said.
Irrespective of the whole complex of the problems, Azerbaijan could
achieve realization of the regional energy and transport projects of
global character. "However, these successes disturb the destructive
forces. We face large number of foreign propagandistic materials
describing the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict wrongly,
putting Azerbaijan’s position at stake in the negotiations process on
the conflict settlement. I think that the efforts of finding solution
to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in an averaged and simplified manner
are wittingly made unproductive," Huseynov said.