AzTV Baku, Azerbaijan
Dec 31 2008

Azeri leader warns of new hostilities in Karabakh, praises economic
growth

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has promised to continue efforts to
regain control of Nagornyy Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic
Armenian-populated territory that has broken away from the central
government’s control.

In a New Year address to the nation on 31 December, which was
broadcast on state television, Aliyev once again warned that
Azerbaijan could resort to military force to retake the territory
should peace talks fail.

"Nagornyy Karabakh is a historical Azerbaijani territory. We will make
every effort – political, diplomatic and, if need be, military – to
restore Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. We have the right to do
so. International law allows us," Aliyev said.

Nagornyy Karabakh, which is home to around 140,000 ethnic Armenians,
seceded from Azerbaijan following a separatist war in the early
1990s. Some 30,000 people were killed and over 1 million were driven
out of their homes during the conflict.

International efforts to mediate a peaceful settlement of the conflict
have failed so far as Nagornyy Karabakh remains under Armenian control
along with a chunk of adjacent Azerbaijani territory.

Azerbaijan’s military spending amounted to 2bn dollars in 2008, and it
will be increased further in the coming year, Aliyev said.

"We are doing this. We must do this because we are in a state of war,"
Aliyev said. "The war has not finished yet. Only the first stage of it
has ended, and we should always be ready to liberate our native land
by any means."

Economy

President Aliyev also praised Azerbaijan’s economic performance in the
outgoing year.

"Our economy continued to grow at a high rate in 2008. I can say that
Azerbaijan has been the world’s fastest growing economy in the past
four years. This is a great achievement," Aliyev said.

He went on to say that poverty had been sharply reduced during his
first five-year term in office. While 49 per cent of Azerbaijanis were
poor in 2003, this was reduced to 16 per cent in 2008, Aliyev said,
adding that the figure would shrink further in the future.

Aliyev also said he had fulfilled his campaign promise of creating
600,000 jobs in the country.

"Today I am proud to say that 750,000 news jobs have been created in
Azerbaijan in the past five years. This has given very big impetus to
the development of [Azerbaijan’s] regions," he said.

[translated from Azeri]