ELNUR ASLANOV: "I AM CONFIDENT THAT THE NEW US ADMINISTRATION WILL NOT SPOIL THE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH AZERBAIJAN AND TURKEY"

Today.Az
litics/48774.html
Nov 5 2008
Azerbaijan

Day.Az interview with Elnur Aslanov, chief of department of political
analysis and information of the presidential administration of
Azerbaijan.

– What do you expect from election of Barak Obana as a new president
of the United States in the sense of the further development of
US-Azerbaijani relations?

– First of all, we congratulate the US people with the successful
conduction of elections. These elections were quite intensive and it
was the most durable electoral process in the US history.

On the whole, the United States and Azerbaijan maintain close relations
of strategic partnership. We are cooperating on a number of questions
from energy security to the issues of political and military and
political cooperation. I sincerely hope and even confident that
these relations will further develop intensively and fruitfully for
the development of the two countries and for establishment of closer
ties between our publics.

The experience of construction of a democratic and secular state,
which the western world has, is very important and interesting for
Azerbaijan. At the same time we want these democratic values and ideas,
the values of a secular society, we are now forming, to respond to
our national interests and our mentality.

We are confident that our relations will develop and they will be
more effective and fruitful.

– During his electoral campaign B.Obama stated the intention to
recognize the so-called "Armenian genocide" in case he is elected
the US President. Do you think his administration will take this step
or these statements can be considered a traditional PR-action of the
Democratic Party?

– On the whole, the world is practicing the methods, according to
which the candidates may do different statements about what they are
going to do or wish to do in the future.

But at the same time I sincerely hope and I am confident that
the relations between the two countries (this implies not only
relations between USA and Azerbaijan but also US and Turkey, the
strategic partner of the United States) will not be caused a damage,
contradicting to the interests of strategic partnership.

– Is the new administration of the White House expected to take any
additional initiatives in the resolution of the Karabakh conflict?

– We hope that the Karabakh resolution will be reached on the
basis of the peaceful settlement of the conflict. It is certainly
difficult to speak about expectations on this issue, as the new US
president was elected just several hours ago. But we hope that the US
administration will spare no efforts for the fair peaceful resolution
of the conflict on the basis of the main principle of international
law – the territorial integrity of the state.

– The United States still preserve some discriminative decisions
towards Azerbaijan, such as amendment 907 and Jackson-Venick
amendment. Can we expect elimination of these amendments from Obama’s
administration?

Jackson-Venick’s amendment is absurd in the contemporary world. We
do hope that it will be fully annulled, as it does not work. As for
amendment 907, definite changes are introduced to its execution every
year. We hope and we believe that it will be annulled which will
have a positive influence on the effective development of relations
between our states.