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As part of his official visit to the Russian Federation, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with the leaders of Russia’s top mass media at the TASS headquarters, Azertag reported on February 23.

AZERTAC reports that First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva also attended the meeting.

Welcoming the meeting participants, TASS Director General Sergei Mikhailov said: Hello, colleagues. We are glad to see everyone at this meeting. Of course, we cannot declare victory over the pandemic yet, but we are slowly resuming our TASS Editor-in-Chief Club, the famous TASS one. Not because we decided to start alphabetically with the letter “A”, but it just happened that way. Thank you very much for coming to TASS. We are always very happy. You are always a very dear guest here and we remember that meeting 10 years ago. Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva was here relatively recently, five or six years ago. As usual, our meetings are held in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Any questions. Would you like to say anything?

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you very much. I would like to thank the leadership of TASS for the opportunity to meet with the heads of leading Russian media. I think that the time is the best, given the format of my visit to Russia, the official visit, and especially, of course, the signing of the Declaration on Allied Cooperation yesterday. A lot of documents have been signed between Russia and Azerbaijan – more than 200. But this one is quite special, because after 30 years of interstate relations we have reached the level of an alliance. In fact, I would say we have only formalized it because I think that the nature of relations between Russia and Azerbaijan for many years met all the parameters of the relations between allies. In other words, this is a document that not only sums up a lot of work, but also opens up great prospects for future interaction between Russia and Azerbaijan, as well as prospects for positive regional development. And less than a day after the signing of this document, I am here. As already mentioned, this is not my first time here and these walls have become somewhat dear to me, especially due to the relaxed atmosphere that always exists in TASS, the opportunity to exchange views and clarify some issues that are sometimes beyond the scope of official statements.

Official statements were made by the President of Russia and myself yesterday. They have been published in the Azerbaijani press in full. I believe you had the opportunity to get acquainted with them. Therefore, I would not like to repeat myself. I think we should leave more time just for our conversation. So it is a pleasure to see you all here. And thank you for taking the time to come here on a day off, to spend your time on this meeting. I appreciate it very much.

Sergei Mikhailov: Please, colleagues.

Vladislav Fronin, Editor-in-Chief of “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”: The first question then has to do with the Declaration. There are 43 provisions in the Declaration. Could you please elaborate what the new level means, if we don’t speak about “general level” in general terms. Could you please clarify what the new level in the economy, the new level in culture and in other areas of interaction is about? After all, we have had an agreement, an agreement for many years. And does this mean that this is higher than that agreement?

President Ilham Aliyev: I think it does. This is higher than the agreement, because the agreement, as far as I remember, was about friendship, cooperation and security, but it did not define the format of relations as allies. For many years, the relations between Russia and Azerbaijan were characterized by both me and President Putin as relations of strategic partners. The current format of relations is the highest. In other words, there is practically nothing higher than this. In interstate relations, this is the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. I have given this instruction and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan has posted the full text of the Declaration on the website so that everyone could get acquainted with it. As I noted yesterday, there are 43 provisions in it. Of course, it would take too much time to comment on all the provisions. And there is no need for that, you can look it up. But the very title of this Declaration speaks volumes. This, as I said, is the result of very hard work over many years to increase the level of interaction and the result of specific work by a group of representatives of Russia and Azerbaijan for more than one year – since January last year – on the actual text of this Declaration. It covers almost all areas of life. And, of course, there is also a series of documents being developed that will back up this Declaration with concrete agreements on various fronts.

I should also note that eight road maps are being implemented, which have been adopted by Russia and Azerbaijan in various areas – trade, economic, transport, humanitarian activities and other areas. In other words, the relations are so diversified that it is easier to say or find the areas we do not cooperate in than those in which we cooperate. Of course, I also think that to define this level as one of allied cooperation is a great achievement and, of course, a great responsibility for our countries, for two neighboring countries. We must live up to this high level together in the future.

Dmitriy Kiselev, Director General of the International Information Agency “Rossiya Segodnya”: Ilham Heydar oglu, the documents on allied relations were prepared in one situation and with one Russia, but were signed at a moment when the situation in the world had changed qualitatively, and so had Russia. We all know what we are talking about. What do allied relations with Russia mean in these changed circumstances. How does this color the situation, our allied relations, and how would you decipher them in the current situation?

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, all this happened so recently that it needs to be analyzed, of course. But I must say that the text of the Declaration was prepared several months ago. The final text was ready, and it was just necessary for the presidents to meet in person – of course, taking into account all the pandemic restrictions and the schedules of the presidents. It was agreed during my last visit to Moscow at the end of November last year that this would happen at the beginning of this year. The date was proposed by the Russian side. This date was proposed about 20 days before the day of signing, and we accepted it. Of course, I did not even consider the possibility of correcting this date, taking into account the fact that the events you are talking about happened as I was flying here on the plane on the 21st. But even if I had still been in Baku, I would also have flown here. Therefore, nothing has changed or should change for our relations. We will continue to work along the lines that are reflected in the Declaration and along which we have been working for many years. For many years, we have always supported each other in the international arena. I will say without false modesty that I, among others, laid the foundation for this as chairman of the delegation of the Azerbaijani parliament to PACE. When we were just elected there, we organized a meeting with the Russian delegation on our initiative and agreed to support each other on all issues and always voted in solidarity. And this tradition was then picked in other international institutions. This can be traced even by a non-specialist. Therefore, I think that we simply formalized yesterday what was already there, we gave it the name that corresponds to the spirit and nature of our relations, and we will continue to work in this direction. I am sure that there will be no correction in the position of the Azerbaijani and Russian sides in connection with the events that have happened and the events that may still happen in our region.

Mikhail Komissar, Director General of Interfax agency: Picking up the same topic and also taking into account the fact that not so long ago the situation with Karabakh was to some extent resolved, do you think that Azerbaijan can now move towards the CSTO, the SCO? Are there any such plans?

President Ilham Aliyev: The point is that as far as the SCO is concerned, we are already involved in a certain sense. We have been a dialogue partner for more than a year now. This is the first step. The second step is to be an observer. Several years ago, we officially applied to the SCO Secretariat to upgrade our status to that of an observer, but, unfortunately, this issue has not yet been resolved. And my contacts with the leadership of Russia, with the leadership of the People's Republic of China and with other members of the SCO in this context show that there is no reason why our status should not be upgraded. But this is not happening for reasons unknown to us.

As for other integration projects, we proceed from the principles of expediency and to what extent this would meets our national interests. I think it is no secret to anyone that the leading role in the CSTO belongs to Russia. This was demonstrated not so long ago in the CIS. And it was clear to everyone even before the events in Kazakhstan. Having allied relations with the Russian Federation, as well as two out of 43 provisions directly dwell upon issues related to the provision of military assistance if necessary – these are provisions 6 and 16 – I think that this is quite enough. It is clear that the CSTO is the CSTO as long as Russia is there. If Russia were not in the CSTO, then no-one would even remember it. This is what we are proceeding from. Therefore, the step in the matter of raising the level of military-political cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan has been taken. We also have very trusting, close and friendly relations with other members of the CSTO, with the exception of Armenia. I think that after the end of the second Karabakh war, our relations with Armenia will also normalize. In any case, we have officially declared our desire to conclude a peace treaty with Armenia. This will probably happen at some stage. But in the current geopolitical realities, we must be realistic and should not wish for what is impossible to achieve. We must move towards establishing a lasting peace in the Caucasus. Therefore, I think that yesterday's document answers your question to a certain extent. The same, anticipating further questions, also applies to the issue related to the EurAsEC. This has also been discussed both in the expert community and in the political arena for a long time. But here too, we proceed from the principle to which extent this will meet our economic interests because our strategy and tactical steps have always been based on our own resources, on what we have at our disposal. We have managed to create a self-sufficient economy and not depend on international financial institutions or other financial injections.

Therefore, we will analyze everything from a pragmatic point of view. Yesterday, at a meeting with the head of the government of the Russian Federation, this topic was discussed. And our position was openly brought to the attention of the Russian side – we should put before ourselves, as it were, two sheets of paper – one with pluses and the other where there may be some restrictions or where our economic sovereignty can be corrected to some extent. And after analyzing the pros and cons, of course, a decision that is beneficial to us will be made. Along with this, I must say that Azerbaijan has signed free trade agreements with all CIS countries, including Russia – with the exception of Armenia, of course. A step towards easing economic and customs barriers has been made. As they say, let's now wait and see. We can’t guess anything and have never announced any goals that cannot be achieved in a short time. But, of course, this is on the agenda as part of the discussions within our team.

Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief of RT TV channel and the International News Agency “Rossiya segodnya”: Ilham Heydar oglu, we are now in the process of discussing more and more sanctions, including personal sanctions. Some of those present here are already banned from entering Europe, like Dmitry, some of us, like myself for example, will be most likely banned today. We know of many examples when people have been denied entry somewhere on the basis of what they did or did not do, spoke, like Dmitry and I did, or did not speak. We also know many examples where entry is denied on the basis of citizenship because relationships between different countries can be different. But there are almost no examples in the world when entry into a country would be prohibited on ethnic grounds. We all know that Armenians are not allowed to enter Azerbaijan. This is usually explained by security reasons. Thus, the Azerbaijani people appear in a somewhat bad light, which is strange. It is hard for me to believe this. I don’t believe that this is the case, that when people in Azerbaijan see an ethnic Armenian, they will attack them and tear them to pieces. After all, this is not the Middle Ages. Wouldn't you like to set an example of such a civilized and cultural attitude to this issue and just cancel this ridiculous status quo?

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, first of all, I have to say that the information you have shared with us is not accurate, to put it mildly. We do not have a ban on entry on an ethnic basis, and the numerous visits by representatives of the Armenian people to Azerbaijan testify to this. They have participated in sporting events such as the European Games. A team from Armenia participated, and I even remember personally handing a silver medal to a representative of Ukraine who was an Armenian by nationality. He stood on the podium next to the Azerbaijani boxer who won gold. I awarded him, shook his hand and congratulated him, and the audience, which, perhaps, was not fully tuned in to this applauded me for a long time.

Margarita Simonyan: I know this story.

President Ilham Aliyev: Yes, you see. Then it means that there is a certain bias in what you said. The same applies to the arrival of representatives of Armenia, not just ethnic Armenians. Representatives of Armenia have come to Azerbaijan for various events. There was a visit by Catholicos Garegin several years ago. I met with him in my office. He visited the Armenian church in the center of Baku and was surprised that we keep more than 5,000 books in Armenian in this church. He witnessed this himself. I can give many more such examples – MPs, public figures and citizens of other countries with Armenian roots. We don't have any restrictions. There are, or rather, there were concerns that in cases when this happens somewhat chaotically, there was a certain risk that there might be some kind of incidents. Because for almost 30 years, all Azerbaijani cultural, historical and religious heritage in Karabakh and Zangazur was destroyed. I have brought a book – in fact, it is not even a book, but more of a photo album, “Karabakh before and after the occupation”. I will present it to you, so you can see. This is better than any words about what happened there. And, of course, there are a lot of victims, a lot of people who have lost their parents and loved ones. We still have about 4,000 missing people. Unfortunately, they are not being returned. We are not being told about mass grave sites. We are responsible for the safety of our citizens and visitors, so our request was that in the event that either citizens of Armenia or citizens with Armenian surnames want to come to Azerbaijan, the relevant authorities should be notified. In particular, if we are talking about Russia, the Embassy and Ambassador Polad Bulbuloglu know these instructions. There were cases when entry was denied, but that happened precisely because these formalities were not observed.

I do not want to talk about what happened to the Azerbaijanis who accidentally got into the territory controlled by the Armenian armed forces, wanted to visit their homes and were detained, taken prisoner and tortured. This is another topic. But I think that after the end of the war, if the Armenian leadership accepts our ideas to start working on a peace treaty, such visits may become commonplace, as was the case before the war. Baku, unlike Yerevan, has always been a multinational city. Azerbaijan is still a multinational state, unlike Armenia, which is a mono-ethnic state, where almost all national minorities, primarily Azerbaijanis, have been deported and expelled. Therefore, the spirit of multiculturalism in Azerbaijan is visible practically everywhere. Moreover, thousands of Azerbaijani citizens of Armenian nationality live in Azerbaijan. There are fewer of them than the figure that is being mentioned – 30,000. There were 30,000 of them perhaps 10-15 years ago, but still they are there, they live and live normally, no-one makes any claims to them. So taking this opportunity to answer your question, I would like to invite you to come to Azerbaijan. And you will see that there are no restrictions.

Margarita Simonyan: You said that there was bias in my question. There is no bias, believe me. I am aware of the cases you are talking about. And you are saying that all these cases are special.

The President of the country knows about them – these are sports events, political and public events. But, for example, in the 20 years that I have been working in this system no-one has succeeded in sending a film crew with even a sound engineer with an Armenian surname. If this is not the case now and you are inviting me with an Armenian surname, maybe I can take a few more colleagues along who would love to come. Do I understand you correctly that we can apply in such cases if we are going there with a group?

President Ilham Aliyev: Yes.

Mikhail Gusman: This does not mean that all employees in the organization Margarita is heading are Armenians. It doesn't mean that.

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, I think the majority are.

Margarita Simonyan: You are wrong.

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, you have just made a mistake too.

Margarita Simonyan: A total of 6,000 people work in my organization. Most of them are British and American. So I understand you correctly, don’t I? Ilham Heydar oglu, I am a fifth-generation Russian woman.

President Ilham Aliyev: Yes, but in this case you asked the question as an Armenian, as far as I understand.

Margarita Simonyan: I asked the question as the head of an organization that is faced with the fact that I cannot send my employees to two countries solely on ethnic grounds: people with Armenian surnames to Azerbaijan and people with Georgian surnames to Abkhazia. It just seems to me that this is wrong in the modern world. And we are now, it seems to me, moving to some kind of ethnic layer of conversation, this is also wrong.

President Ilham Aliyev: You started it. I simply wanted to correct you by saying that what you said is not true. And I can provide hundreds of examples when people with Armenian surnames come to Azerbaijan both as part of a film crew and as part of official delegations, including from Russia and also from other countries – from France, the USA. There were a lot of them. You are probably unaware of that. But I think that if you come to Azerbaijan with your group, you will be convinced of this.

First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva: May I add something to what Margarita said.

President Ilham Aliyev: Yes, of course.

Mehriban Aliyeva: Right before our visit to Moscow, a documentary was shown on Azerbaijani television. The film was about an elderly woman. She is 79 years old, and she came to Aghdam, to the liberated Aghdam, to find her home. The woman is very old indeed, she could hardly walk, and for almost 30 minutes, she tried to tell through tears about her emotions, that she, of course, did not find anything. She didn't even find the ruins. She tried to find at least the neighborhood. It is quite a frightening sight, and I think that now is the opportunity – I want to invite you all. Mr. President has also mentioned about the book, but you have to see it with your own eyes. Why am I talking about this now – she told her story and in parallel, footage, pre-war footage was shown from before the first war, when there was a wedding in her family. It showed them celebrating this wedding in the yard, welcoming a young bride, and then the current footage, today's footage. She has tears of pain, tears of happiness that she finally came to this earth. She said: “I have seen this. I am lucky to have survived to this day.” At the end, she takes a piece of land and kisses it. So I am telling you this now in order to – it is difficult to convey this, you probably need to see it and feel that there are many such people. During the years of the first war, we had about a million refugees. Many of the people who lived with the dream did not live to see it come true. Those who survived, of course, are happy now. And, of course, these people have families, have acquaintances. And when such situations occur, as the President has emphasized, first of all, this is done in order to protect. Because when we talk about some big problems, we often speak in general terms and we do not see an individual person, which is probably quite natural. Behind every problem, there is still a person with his story, his life, his emotions. Unfortunately, people are different and people’s emotional background is also different. That is why, as a state, and the President speaks on behalf of the state of Azerbaijan in this case, it must protect everyone who visits Azerbaijan. But the state knows what emotions people live with. It is also a fact: people control their emotions differently. You know, there is no difference in ethnic, national or religious composition. All people are different and react differently. Some may be more able to control, analyze and act in accordance with generally accepted norms. Others simply can't resist. This is one of the factors that is also very important for us because we understand we must protect people visiting our country regardless of what nationality they are. This is something I wanted to add so that it is taken into account. This is absolutely not because there is some kind of a factor here, let's say, some ethnic factor. This is not the case. And it is important that there is an understanding. When I was at school, I had an absolutely multiethnic class – Armenians, Russians, Jews, Azerbaijanis. I can't even say that the Azerbaijanis – if you remember, there were 45 people in a class back then – made up the majority. We were all friends, we were united, and absolutely nothing foretold that this might happen. And I think this is the essence, one of the best features of the Azerbaijani people, and it could not disappear. The fact that the situation is like this today has absolutely understandable and, unfortunately, historical roots.

Margarita Simonyan: Can your classmates, the Armenians who probably no longer live in Azerbaijan come? This is what I am asking. I don't want to go into history now.

Mehriban Aliyeva: Of course, Margarita, they can come.

Margarita Simonyan: So they must apply to the Embassy and they can come.

Timur Vaynshteyn, General Producer of NTV: Margarita, we have talked about this topic and I even said: I studied at a school literally 150 meters from the school where Mehriban Aliyeva studied – at school number 160. There were also 45 people of completely different nationalities in our class. We didn’t know it then, but then we began to find out what nationality people were. I know a specific Armenian school friend of mine who was in Baku several years ago, having applied to the Embassy at that time. All this was official. It is clear that there are cases we can probably hear about. There are cases which, unfortunately, are written about on social networks. But globally… I recently visited my school. Everything is wonderful there. I even met teachers who were working there before me – even though I finished school more than 30 years ago. And, of course, one of the surprising things that I noticed is that the school continues to work in Russian. You discussed this with Vladimir Vladimirovich yesterday, the fact that there are already more than 300 such schools in Azerbaijan, 340 schools, and about 20 higher educational institutions where the teaching is conducted in Russian, including branches of well-known Russian universities. And it seems to me that when we talk about Russia's relations with different countries today, this is one of the important issues of the alliance per se. Because in many countries, which, unfortunately, quite severely cut off the possibility of studying in Russian and communicating in Russian in those 1990s, we see rather complicated relations with Russia today. I am talking about the countries of the former Soviet Union. Do you think this trend will be continued in general?

President Ilham Aliyev: This is a part of the state policy. But before answering your question, I would like to describe a situation, so to speak, related to what we have been talking about. Literally these days, perhaps even today, two members of the Azerbaijani parliament are in Yerevan attending a meeting of the Euronest. In order for them to go there, we received guarantees from the Committee or the Ministry of State Security – I don’t know exactly how they are called in Armenia – for their safety. As soon as some people found out that they were there, unrest began in Armenia. You can now see that on social networks, the unrest does not seem to subside. I have been informed today that 10 people were detained, the protesters who simply pose a threat to our MPs. Moreover, in the place where lunch was supposed to be provided for those attending this meeting – and there are not only our citizens there, of course, there are members of the European Parliament, the Eastern Partnership countries – the restaurant owners refused to serve Azerbaijanis and accused the Armenian prime minister of toing the line of Aliyev who said that the Azerbaijanis would be traveling to Yerevan. Yes, I did say that. I also said we would be traveling there not on tanks, but to attend events. I am saying this to show that if they had gone there on their own, without proper coordination and without all the security measures, it is not difficult to imagine what kind of lynching would have been carried out on them and how it would all have ended. I am sure that they would have been publicly beheaded at the very least. So we are also taking measures. This topic, by the way, was discussed during the visits of the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, and then I tried to explain that we cannot allow some kind of excesses to happen and then to be accused of someone attacking someone else, throwing a stone at someone. So we must treat this issue responsibly. If all this is properly organized and coordinated, then there are no restrictions. Moreover, of course, what Mehriban has said is the absolute truth. The wounds of the war have not healed. If our wounds did not heal for 30 years, then, of course, they have not healed with the Armenian people now, after the defeat in the second war. This also needs to be understood. We do not live in some kind of vacuum. We live among people and must approach this responsibly. And the steps that we are taking, including myself, by stating, unlike the Armenian leadership by the way, that we must make up are precisely aimed at ensuring that such issues do not arise and become commonplace. The Germans and citizens of the USSR probably didn’t start visiting each other a year after World War II either. It also needed some time perhaps. Because imagine the Germans coming to Moscow during the occupation of, say, Ukraine or Belarus or Smolensk. What would they have done to them? So this analogy is absolutely adequate, so to speak. This is just returning to this topic.

As for teaching in Russian, yes, this is a conscious policy. We are doing this, first of all, for ourselves, of course, so that those who want to study in Russian – both Azerbaijanis and non-Azerbaijanis – have such an opportunity. The demand for studying in the Russian sector, as we call it, is high in schools, and, as I said, both Azerbaijanis and non-Azerbaijanis study – more than 140,000 children and more than 15,000 Azerbaijani citizens study at universities in the Russian department. For comparison, let me say that in Armenia, either by law or by another ordinance, it is completely forbidden for children of Armenian nationality to study in non-Armenian schools. And as far as I know, there is only one or two Russian schools in Armenia, and they are for the military. This, as they say, is regarding the question of who is who. So the Declaration signed yesterday, of course, contains a clause on humanitarian cooperation, and this cooperation is mutual. Before my visit to Moscow, I was given an information note stating that there is a department in the Azerbaijani language in Russia. There are about 80 schools. We welcome this very much, so that Azerbaijanis who are Russian citizens, as well as those who work here, their children could also study in their own language. In other words, this is a mutual process, which is fully in the spirit of cooperation, and I think, as Timur said, that in comparison with other countries of the post-Soviet space, this is an example of how this should be treated. This applies not only to education, but also to the attitude towards the Russian language in general. In Azerbaijan, there is a state university, the Slavic University, where they, first of all, study the Russian language and train teachers of the Russian language and other Slavic languages.

Before the pandemic, representatives of the creative intelligentsia performed in Baku almost every week – performances, concerts. So we have been living in such an interaction, as Timur knows perfectly well, for many years. And it is very important that at a time when we are not part of the same state and the new generation has already emerged, we have managed to preserve this and will do everything to preserve it for the future.

Pavel Gusev, Editor-in-Chief of “Moskovsky Komsomolets” newspaper: Turkey is very popular among Russians as a destination for recreation. Does Azerbaijan think of overtaking Turkey in this respect? Because the food in Azerbaijan, the alcoholic drinks are even better, the sea is not bad, fruit and everything else, the tea is gorgeous. It seems to me that Azerbaijan could move Turkey to the side quite a bit.

President Ilham Aliyev: No, of course, not. I think this is unlikely. First of all, because that the tourism industry in Turkey is one of the best, if not the best in the world, and, of course, the climate. In other words, it is completely useless for us to compete purely in terms of climatic capabilities. Of course, I think we will provide a completely different segment. We will provide a segment for those who come to feel at home. People go to Turkey to see the sights, swim in the sea and go skiing. All this can also be done in Azerbaijan, but the Russians go to Azerbaijan more to feel at home. Before the pandemic, by the way, in 2019, we had a million Russian tourists, and they travel primarily because they feel comfortable in Azerbaijan. They feel at home, in their own environment, including the language environment. Of course, everything you have said about is also available, however, if all of this were there but there weren’t this atmosphere, then they would probably not have come. We observed an increase of literally 15-20 percent annually, but the pandemic brought it all down. Last year though, the growth went back to 15 percent. So I think we simply need to be more active in Russia, and not only in Moscow, in showing out possibilities. In other words, recreation in Azerbaijan is very diverse, and I think anyone can find an interesting activity for themselves, so to speak. We just need to present it well. Of course, our weak point is the weak tourism industry. But there are probably objective reasons here too, because this area is relatively new for us, and the issues of personnel training and service play an important role here. But now, for example, there are a hundred flights a week between Russian and Azerbaijani cities, which is a good indicator. I would like to take this opportunity to invite you all either as a group or…

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