AZERBAIJAN IS A SPECIAL COUNTRY I KNOW I CAN TRUST IN – INTERVIEW WITH ISRAELI PRESIDENT SHIMON PERES
Today.Az
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June 25 2009
Azerbaijan
Exclusive interview of European Desk of Trend News Agency with
President of the State of Israel Shimon Peres
Question: You are scheduled to visit Azerbaijan next week. What
documents will be signed during the visit? How do you estimate the
present and how do you see the future of bilateral relations between
Azerbaijan and Israel?
Answer: Well, there are many things in common. First of all, Azerbaijan
discovered the great wealth of gas and is head a cultural bust which is
quite impressive. People don’t know it, but Azerbaijan gave a right to
women to vote before the Swiss and before the Americans. Azerbaijan
has shown patience and respect to the place where the Jews, the
Muslims and the Christians can live together without hatred, without
fanaticism. So, for me it is a special country that I know I can
trust in and has cultural background. Oil you can buy, but culture
you have to create. And Azerbaijan created culture.
Azerbaijan is a small people. Azerbaijan and Israel have the same
problem. How can small people become greater in spite of their
size? You can become great irrespective of the size of your land if
you adopt modern science and technology.
President of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliev provokes the highest
respect. I found him extremely humane, almost modest, educated, and
sophisticated. It’s a pleasure to talk with him. He showed interest
in these domains: agriculture, water, health, and high tech. We
discussed it.
Israel doesn’t almost have either land, or water, or gas, or
petrol. So, we have to hang in our brains, in our science and we
should share whatever we have, whatever Azerbaijan wants. The great
thing about Israel is that we are not dangerous. We are too small
to danger anybody. But on the other hand we are developed and we are
ready to share with our friends whatever we can offer in the domain
of development and science and so on. In that we can cooperate fully.
We have the culture, we have the will and the readiness. I also met
the father of the present president [of Azerbaijan]. I was impressed
of him very much. I have met him twice. He was the man of tradition
and intelligence.
I also know that Azerbaijan has problem around. Basically, the problems
stem from your neighbors. Because in politics you cannot choose your
neighbors, as in the family you cannot choose your parents. It is
a fact of life. Israel is totally for the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan. We don’t think that one country can come and annex a part
of another land.
So, even before visiting the country (I have been there once) I have
a great deal of sympathy. And also historically a profound thing for
the way that Azerbaijan has handled the Jewish people. Many of them
have emigrated to Israel. They carry with them very warm feeling to
Azerbaijan. And they have a special flavor to your own society. So,
I think that there is a collection of reasons that makes one very
much interested in coming visit to your land.
Q: Do you expect expansion of diplomatic ties between the two
countries?
A: I hope you will have a full embassy in Israel. It gets needed. I
think more the cooperation goes up it is natural consequence of the
relationship. It is going to happen, because I hope that we shall
enrich our relations in this visit. There are many people coming
from Israel with this matter, accompanying us in this visit. We want
to establish better ties in the name of economy and in the name of
science. And then the embassies will be very necessary on both sides.
Q: You said that Israel supports territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan. Israel has been taking constructive role in the regard to
resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Is
Israel prepared to more active involvement in the process of
settlement?
A: We are a small country. We are not a weighty power. We can
express our views and with our views we can contribute. But we are
not a wealthy power, when it comes to our views, our attitudes and
positions. I think else Azerbaijan would like very much to come
closer not only with Israel, but with Jewish life abroad, and even
in the United States of America. And we can do only what we can –
to support the integrity of Azerbaijan in all domains.
Q: Israel has recently expressed its intention to get Azerbaijani gas
that runs from Azerbaijan to Turkey via Georgia. However, a pipeline
that will go from Turkey to Israel through the Mediterranean Sea is
needed in this respect. What volume of gas purchase is possible? And
what who will undertake the expenses?
A: The minister of infrastructure is coming with me. He handles that
issue and I would prefer him to answer this question, because he knows
more details of it. But the purpose of his coming is really to check
the real possibilities of connecting and bringing the Azerbaijani
gas to Israel.