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Azerbaijan Will Never Accept Karabakh's Secession - President

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  • Azerbaijan Will Never Accept Karabakh's Secession - President

    AZERBAIJAN WILL NEVER ACCEPT KARABAKH'S SECESSION - PRESIDENT

    Interfax News Agency
    March 20 2008
    Russia

    Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that the fate of
    Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagornyy Karabakh will never be
    decided in a plebiscite.

    "The issue of Nagornyy Karabakh breaking away from Azerbaijan in five,
    10 or 100 years, either in a plebiscite, as a result of any popular
    vote or in any other way, has never existed and will not exist," Aliyev
    said in an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax on 20 March.

    "We will not accept any status [for Nagornyy Karabakh] outside the
    territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," he added.

    Aliyev also said Azerbaijan is pleased with the results of the recent
    vote at the UN General Assembly on the new resolution on Karabakh.

    "We regard the resolution as another diplomatic and political success
    of Azerbaijan," the agency quoted him as saying.

    At the same time, Ilham Aliyev criticized the OSCE Minsk Group
    co-chair countries for voting against the resolution. "I think as
    co-chair countries they should have abstained [from voting]. We did
    not expect that they would vote for [the resolution], but thought
    they would abstain," he said. "The vote showed that although some
    co-chair countries actively lobbied and campaigned among UN member
    states in order to persuade them to join them, this attempt failed.

    The co-chair countries are the world's leading countries, nuclear
    powers and UN Security Council members, and who supported them?

    Vanuatu? Angola? This shows the mood of the world community. This shows
    that justice does exist in the world," the Azerbaijani president said.

    Commenting on the recent unrest in Armenia, Aliyev said that
    "what happened in Armenia both during and after the [19 February
    presidential] election is a result of Armenia's aggressive and
    occupying policy against Azerbaijan. If there was peace in the Caucasus
    and Azerbaijan and Armenia were not at war, the events there would
    have developed according to a different scenario."

    President Aliyev stressed that his country has chosen democracy and
    development. "We have chosen the path of democracy, social justice,
    development and integration in the region and are successfully
    following this path," he said. "Armenia has chosen the path of
    isolationism, aggression, occupation of someone else's territories,
    violation of the principles of international law and a policy of ethnic
    cleansing. You can see for yourselves what this has resulted in. If
    in Xocali [an Azerbaijani-populated town in Nagornyy Karabakh where
    ethnic Azerbaijanis were massacred in 1992] they committed genocide
    against the Azerbaijani nation, then after the election in Armenia
    they committed a crime against the Armenian nation," he said.

    At the same time, Ilham Aliyev praised Azerbaijan's economic
    development, saying that the country's GDP has grown by 86 per cent in
    the past four years, "which made it possible to accumulate sufficient
    financial resources and pursue an intensive social policy".

    Aliyev stressed that he kept all his election promises, reducing
    unemployment and providing refugees with accommodation. He said that
    650,000 jobs have been created in the country and the level of poverty
    has fallen from 49 to 16 per cent.

    Ilham Aliyev went on to say that Azerbaijan has no plans to seek NATO
    membership. "Azerbaijan believes that membership of any organization
    requires mutual agreement. We are not planning to impose ourselves
    on anyone," he said.

    "We are ensuring our own security, we are a self-sufficient country
    in terms of economy, politics and energy. Therefore, we believe that
    relations should be based on equality, mutual respect and interest.

    Our current level of cooperation with NATO suits us," Interfax quoted
    Aliyev as saying. "Proceeding from the current situation, the issue
    of Azerbaijan's membership of NATO is not on the agenda," he said.

    Aliyev described the country's increasing military spending as
    natural. He said that over the past four years, Azerbaijan's budget
    has grown tenfold and reached 12bn dollars in 2008 while the country's
    military expenditure has increased to 1.3bn dollars.

    Azerbaijan will develop a "powerful military-industrial complex to
    ensure its security in the future", the Azerbaijani president said.

    Ilham Aliyev also said that he wants Azerbaijan to be a developed
    country, adding that oil revenues will make this possible. "We
    expect the implementation of energy projects to yield hundred of
    billions of dollars - if previously we said [that this would happen]
    in the next 20 years, now [we say] in 10 years. And all this gives
    an opportunity to carry out both political and economic reforms,
    strengthen the country's international position and look to the
    future. We see Azerbaijan in the future as a developed, democratic and
    modern state where people live in peace, accord and social justice,"
    Interfax quoted Ilham Aliyev as saying.
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