NEXT YEAR AZERI ECONOMY WILL BE TEN TIMES BIGGER THAN ARMENIAN ONE: AZERI PRESIDENT
ARMINFO News Agency
October 17, 2006 Tuesday
"We are making active efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict by peace
but, at the same time, we are getting increasingly convinced that,
without serious military, political, diplomatic an economic levers,
it will be hard to put an end to the occupation of our lands," Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev says in an Oct 15 interview to Al Jazeera
TV channel.
"By involving the UN General Assembly, the CE, the Organization of
the Islamic Conference and other international organizations in the
Karabakh peace process, we are trying to use all chances for peaceful
resolution. At the same time, we are stregthening our country,
economy and defense. Today, our economy is 6 times bigger than that
of Armenia, next year, it will be 10 times bigger. Naturally this will
give us increasingly favorable conditions for resolving the problem,"
says Aliyev. "In economy Armenia is not rival to us. In military
Azerbaijan has the strongest army in the Caucasus and continues to
strengthen it due to yearly growing military allocations," says Aliev.
"When all our energy and economic projects are launched, we will
become a strong state, and Armenia will not be able to rival with us.
So, they must understand that their policy may have fatal consequences
for them and that the population of Karabakh and Armenia may face a
serious danger unless the Karabakh conflict is resolved by peace,"
says Aliev.
He blames Armenia for regularly wrecking the peace talks. He says
that the present format of the talks is the Prague Process – stage
by stage scenario: "withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied
territories, discussion of the status of Karabakh and enhancement of
security." "In fact, this is the final stage and if it is wrecked,
there will be no more chance for further talks. But if the talks
are stopped, we will not just sit by and wait for something. We
are either in the negotiating process our outside it. And if we are
outside, we will give up all our obligations, change our strategy
and consider other solutions," says Aliyev. He notes that Azerbaijan
will not obligatorily start military operation at once, it will be
the last step, but before it the country will use its huge economic,
financial and human potential for achieving its goal.
"Simply, they in Armenia must understand that the process is developing
to our advantage, and they cannot rival with us. So, for the sake of
the safety of the Armenian population of Karabakh and for the sake
of the safety of the population of Armenia, they must voluntarily
withdraw their troops from our occupied territories," says Aliyev.