Energy resources and: thanks to the transit potential, modern Azerbaijanand:there is a wide opportunity to do it outsideand:in which close and: in dialogue with distant neighbors who are often in sharp opposition to each other.

Despite some stagnation of energy resource extraction՝ energy resources of the western Caspian Sea and “Mof the lower corridor» Constantly high interest in such transport routes from various parties conditions official Baku’s offensive approaches and forms its special point of view regionally and partly worldwide on processes։

Aliyev speech, in the so-called IV Shushi Global Media Forumto whom fully demonstrated this tendency. In his logic, Azerbaijan is undoubtedly a dominant power in the South Caucasus, which is well noticeable, in particular, the so-called «Trump route» in the rhetoric about it.

According to Aliyev, they realized it in the White House «Zangezur corridor»as the strategic importance of the communication route connecting the main territory of Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan and Turkeyn:actively working to promote that idea and convincing Pashinyan’s government of the need for its implementation. They think in Baku՝ it was Azerbaijan’s position that influenced the approaches of the White House, which could not but affect Yerevan’s position.

It is impossible not to pay attention to the pragmatic attitude of Azerbaijan towards international politics. On the one hand, Aliyev positively assessed the development of economic interaction and political dialogue with the European Union. On the other hand, he has again strongly criticized the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly, whose participation Baku has frozen, and it is not excluded that he will leave these meaningless structures altogether.

The expressions of the leader of Azerbaijan about Russia and Ukraine have become no less demonstrative. On the one hand, Aliyev seems to have assured that the differences with Moscow are in the past, and relations have been managed.

At the same time, he directly supported the authorities in Kiev, supporting Zelensky’s idea of ​​an immediate and complete cessation of hostilities along the contact line of the parties. Moreover, “… we have always supported, support and will support the territorial integrity of Ukraine, its sovereignty, the inviolability of its borders.

The borders of no state can be changed by force, and the regime without the consent of the people of that country. And here our positions are quite consistent and stable. Well, we are always ready to help the Ukrainian people in any way we can… it comes from the heart. And the state, and ordinary people, and commercial companies. This is a united impulse to help those who are in distress, who have suffered, whose territorial integrity has been violated, and to help in whatever way we can.”

Even if it was just rhetoric (and it’s not just rhetoric at all), it in itself proves that the foreign policy of the Near-Caspian country is infinitely far from historical or emotional appeals to the common Soviet or other past. Criticism of the Soviet period as a period of colonial dependence by the son of a former member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU hardly surprises anyone, and even more so is considered some kind of extravagant whim.

According to the Constitution, “modern Azerbaijan is the successor of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan of 1918-1920, not the Soviet Socialist Republic.

We mentioned the Soviet period of our history in our Constitution as the time of occupation, and this is how our generations are brought up, and this is how our history is taught. The invasion of the South Caucasus by the Russian Empire, the occupation of Azerbaijan, the division of Azerbaijan into North and South in the 19th century, the double occupation of Azerbaijan in 1920, when we already had an independent Republic of Azerbaijan… several generations have already grown up with us, who know their history very well and understand the politics of Russia,” says Eldar Namazov, one of Heydar Aliyev’s close comrades-in-arms.

Ilham Aliyev is an experienced politician who is perfectly aware of what he says, what comparisons he makes and in what context. This is amply evidenced by his advice repeated a year later (in response to the extremist Gordon): “never agree with the occupation, and that is what Ukraine is doing… although there have been difficult moments during this year and we have seen, known and heard about the pressure exerted by certain circles on the option of stopping hostilities, essentially fixing the occupation, but neither the people of Ukraine nor its leadership went for it… I think the realization that this war must be stopped, and stopped immediately, should have come a long time ago.

This is the position of Azerbaijan, this is my position, purely human, of a person who led and leads a country that was occupied and liberated from occupation, and the attempt, I think, is quite rare in history, when during the occupation, and also, to put it bluntly, attempts to force an agreement to hand over Karabakh…

The Minsk Group, led by the USA, France and Russia, only wanted to seize Karabakh and not only Karabakh, not only the administrative borders of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, but also the entire territory of Lachin region, Kelbajar region, and hand it over to Armenia so that we agree to it. And in return we were promised that we would be given back the five regions that lie east of where we are. Neither I nor anyone in Azerbaijan would ever agree to this, but it was the united position of the three leading countries…

And when the second Karabakh war started, they all demanded to stop immediately, they intimidated, threatened, called, some very boring (sticky), some less so, but all of them wanted us to stop, so that everything remains as it is…”.

In the Kremlin, Aliyev’s position regarding Ukraine is considered wrong, but it is not a reason to abandon the development of relations with Azerbaijan, Russian President’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov stated on July 17, adding that a number of states with which Russia has close relations have a similar position, and this is “the subject of our disagreements.”

It should be noted that not all countries organize the controversial, to say the least, event “Cultural and ethnic diversity. lessons of history, modern challenges” as Azerbaijan recently did under the guise of “public initiative” in the same city of Shushi:

The choice and geography of the participants, the tone of the speeches, the concluding formula, the propaganda accompaniment, all this fully proves that the “anti-colonial” discourse can be developed not only against France, as the Azerbaijani lobbyists of the Russian expert community and elsewhere may hope.

In this regard, Aliyev’s grinning confession that at least one of the high-ranking Russian media managers, aka “the worthy son of the Azerbaijani people”, Mikhail Guzman, actually worked in his historical homeland, where he returned to Russia after a 40-year “business trip”, after being dismissed from the position of the first deputy director general of the TASS news agency, is extremely demonstrative.

Another important emphasis of the speech was the positioning of Azerbaijan as a constituent part of the Turkic world. The warmest assessments were predictably aimed at Turkey and the Central Asian states, with which Baku is actively strengthening ties, both within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States and in a bilateral format.

«Next year, Azerbaijan will host the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. It is a big responsibility for us, especially in such a troubled period,” Aliyev reminded, answering the question of a guest from Jordan.

By the way, Israel was never mentioned during the speech, this time there were probably no guests from that country, which is known for its close ties with Azerbaijan.

Finally, answering the question of the unknown Raimz Yunus, Aliyev talked about the possible criteria of a “middle power”, which include “the recognition of the country’s potential, its ability to protect its national interests, regardless of what the big powers think or do, as well as the readiness to use its full potential if someone tries to harm it.”

Of course, defense capability is also included here, and not only what is shown in military parades, but what is proven on the battlefield. Next, it is “the ability to influence events beyond one’s borders with just one word or statement.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly demonstrated such ability.” In addition, “responsibility for the events taking place inside the country and to a certain extent responsibility for the entire region. It is possible that the team will fulfill those criteria in the future, but I think that all this can be applied to Azerbaijan, and perhaps that is the reason why many experts call us a middle power, and frankly, I am not against it.

The future will tell whether such ambitions are justified, and if so, to what extent.

Alexander Grigoriev

vpoanalytics.com

Translation by Zhanna Avetisyan

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