The opening ceremony of a new settlement constructed for internally displaced families in Sabunchu district, Baku city, nearby Ramana settlement took place on May 4, 2007.

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Mətbuat xidmətinin məlumatı 03 MAY, 2007

The President of Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev attended in the ceremony. State leader and her spouse Mehriban Aliyeva welcomed with great respect and esteem by the population of the settlement. Deputy Prime minister, Head of the State Committee on Deals of Refugees and İnternally Displaced Persons Ali Hasanov informed the president that, 450 internally displaced families were moved from “Zughulba” sanatory located in Azizbayov district, the buildings with lack of living conditions and completely unsuitable for living, to the new settlement temporarily inhabited by those families. The construction of the settlement in the area about 80 ha was started on December of last year and given into exploitation on April of this year. Total area of 450 dwelling houses is about 29 thousand m2. 90 of the houses consist of one-room (46.7 m2), 222 of two-room (63.1 m2), 134 of three-room (77.8 m2), but 4of them of four-room (91m2) flats. There are a school building of 360 pupils, music school, dispensary, post office, administrative building there. Asphalt roads of 16 km, water pipe of 21 km, power line of 19 km, gas pipe of 27 km and sewage and drainage lines of 34 km were drawn, as well as, 10 high-tension transformers of 400 and 250 kW and one high-tension transformer with 10 megawatt power were installed, two water stores of 500 m3 capacity and a pumping station was built. 400 families inhabited in the settlement are from the region Shusha; the rest 50 families are from Aghdam, Lachin, Khojali and Khojavand. The President Ilham Aliyev firstly got familiar with Malibayli village music school of Culture and Tourism Department of Shusha Region for children. Flower bouquets were presented to the president and his spouse. The state leader listened to the performances of the children studying at music school. “Garabagh shikestesi” in the performance of little singers longing for Shusha that is considered the cradle of music was met with loud applauses. The president was informed that, 148 pupils study at the faculties - tar, kamancha, garmon, naghara, fortepiano and chorus of music school where 22 teachers work. They take an active part in various festivals and contests; possess ancient musical traditions of Garabagh. President Ilham Aliyev got acquainted with photogalleries, such as “Shusha child music schools today”, Heydar Aliyev in Shusha.1982”, “Shusha is the city of historical monuments”, looked at the photos reflecting great leader Haydar Aliyev’s visit to Shusha, his meetings held there at the beginning of last century with great interest. The state leader listened to the songs in the performance of chorus collective and he and his spouse took memorable photo with children. Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan was the guest of Tahir Jafarov, internally displaced person from Khojali region, who was provided with 3-room flat. Our state leader and his spouse talked at tea table with hosts of the flat. Refrigerator and television was given to the hosts of the flat on behalf of the President of Azerbaijan as a gift. The President Ilham Aliyev came to Malibayli village secondary school acting in the settlement. State leader got familiar with the master plan of the settlement, here, as well as, he looked at the photos reflecting the construction and moving process of internally displaced to the settlement. It was also informed that, hundreds of trees were planted in the courtyard of the school within the framework of the project of Heydar Aliyev Foundation “Let’s plant a tree!” . The President of Azerbaijan watched the exemplary performance of the youth in the sport hall of the secondary school with 360 seats, walked through the computer room and the English language cabinet, got interested in children’s knowledge and their skills of using computer, learning foreign language. The schoolchildren displayed their skills of speaking English. Afterwards there was a grand opening of the new settlement and the President Ilham Aliyev had a speech before internally displaced persons. Dear brothers and sisters! I cordially congratulate you on the account of the establishment of this beautiful town. Built in a very short period of time, this town was established in accordance with the highest standards. It has got all conditions to ensure good life, work and education. Beautiful houses, buildings and a school have been erected, roads have been laid, power-supply, gas, water-supply, and sewage lines have been run. Soon communication lines will be run. Overall there is every condition for normal human life. This is another manifestation of the work taking place in Azerbaijan in the past few years. As you are aware, the State Oil Fund established on the great leader Heydar Aliyev's initiative allocated its first funds towards the building of a town for the refugees and IPDs. Prior to that, our refugee and internally displaced compatriots had been living in very poor conditions in Azerbaijan. The toughest conditions of living in a tent camp could be observed here. It is no coincidence that our first steps were taken toward accommodating those living in tent camps. Now we can say that this process is at its final stage. I am certain that by the end of this year the last tent camp will have been disestablished and our compatriots who live in it will be relocated to these beautiful building. This is the main direction of our policy. As a result of the ethnic cleansing committed by Armenia against Azeris, we must temporarily provide our compatriots who have been driven out of their lands with proper living conditions. In the past few years, provisions have been made for large assets to be used for this cause. Today's opening of this beautiful town is another proof of that. 450 houses have been built here, and the people would live comfortable lives in them. The economic reforms taking place in Azerbaijan in the past few years and our successful petroleum strategy creates all these possibilities for us. Our friend who was speaking earlier mentioned that in 1994, the great leader Heydar Aliyev held a meeting with you at the Zughulba sanatorium where you had settled. I remember that meeting well, because I was present as well. That meeting, technically speaking, marked the beginning of the work done in that field in Azerbaijan. That sanatorium fell into disuse back in the mid-1980s. When you settled there, the situation was not very good, and for years, you lived in disrepair buildings. These displays show in what poor conditions you lived. It was our duty to relocate you from there and to this beautiful town. I would like to repeat that we are primarily concerned for our compatriots who live in the poorest conditions, that is, in tent camps. After that, we will provide conditions for those who live in adapted buildings, schools, inns, and disrepair buildings. Nowadays Azerbaijan has got possibilities. If it had not been for the Contract of the Century signed by the great leader on his initiative in 1994, there would have been many obstacles in carrying out this work. Today Azerbaijan's economic potential and its strength are growing. We achieve all the goals that we set for ourselves. Now Azerbaijan is at a leading stage in the world in terms of economic development. For three years in a row, we have been ranked as a country with the highest rate of economic growth in the world. This, in turn, is reflected in every person's life, including the refugees and IDPs, the teachers, the doctors, the people working in government-financed organisations and private sector. Nowadays serious development work is being implemented in Azerbaijan. Schools and hospitals are built, roads are laid, necessary infrastructure is created, power facilities are erected, and water-supply lines are run; not just in Baku, but all across the regions. We must eliminate every problem that creates concerns for our citizens. For this, we have a thought-out programme, financial means, goals, and public support. Azerbaijan satisfies every requirement for carrying out and completing any kind of reforms. Azerbaijan is turning into a powerful state. We pursue our policies independently. We do not depend on anyone economically. We do not depend on anyone in terms of energy security. On the contrary, we have become a country that provides energy security to other countries and organisations. Of course, Azerbaijan's growing economic and political role will assist us in resolving issues on our agenda. The most important issue standing before us is ridding Azerbaijan of occupying forces and the return of our compatriots, our refugee and internally displaced brothers and sisters back to their native land. To us, there is no issue more important than this one, as all other issues have found or are finding their resolution. Our future plans involve economic and social issues and envision the increase in salaries and pensions in order to further improve the financial state of our people. The people of Azerbaijan must live in good conditions. Within three years, the level of poverty has dropped significantly, almost two times, from 49 to 20 per cent. By the end of this year, I am certain, it will dropped even further than 20 per cent. There should not be any poor people in Azerbaijan. That means, our people must live well. This is why all the work done in economic, political, social, and humanitarian fields is fruitful, and we are following the programme. As for the resolution of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over NagornoKarabakh, not everything depends on us. We are in the process of negotiating. We are carrying out negotiations. To be honest, ten years of these negotiations have bothered, upset and exhausted us. How long must we adhere to negotiations? We proved our peaceful intentions many times. Regardless of that, the world is already aware that we have suffered injustice. Armenia's military forces occupied our lands, carried out ethnic cleansing, killed innocent people, destroyed our cities, razed our mosques, and obliterated our ancestors' graves. This injustice was done against Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis. In spite of all this, we have tried and will continue to try to solve this problem through negotiations. We do not want any more bloodshed. We do not want our young people to die. But at the same time, we must be ready at all times to liberate our lands through military means. For this, we are building a strong army. Nowadays Azerbaijan's military potential has been growing year by year. Azerbaijan possesses the most efficient army in the region. Within a short period of time, our military spendings reached 1 billion dollars. Two years ago I made it my goal to equate our military spendings to Armenia's entire budget, and we have achieved that. Whilst Armenia's entire budget is 1 billion dollars, that sum merely constitutes our military spendings. We will continue to increase it. Today the military balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan has changed significantly in our favour compared to the situation in previous years. Considering Azerbaijan's growing economic and political role, we see the future very clearly. We see that in one, two or three years, the gap between us and Armenia will become even wider. This is the case today. In terms of its capacity, Azerbaijan's economy is seven times as large as Armenia's economic, and so is our budget. It will increase in the future. This, in turn, will ensure Azerbaijan's all-round development, the establishment of new institutions, factories and plants, in economic development and the improvement of living conditions for the people. At the same time, military potential should always be our focus, and we must increase and strengthen it. Overall, our political and diplomatic efforts, our active position in bilateral negotiations, our productive participation in international organisations, as well as our economic and military superiority and the high level of development of our military potential all enable us to carry out any operations on our lands without launching aggressive actions against any country. Azerbaijan's territorial integrity is universally recognised and supported. NagornoKarabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan. This is a historic fact. This is proven by standards of international law. Mind you, previously, at earlier stages of the negotiations, international organisations believe that NagornoKarabakh must either be recognised as independent or unite with Armenia. As a result of their sordid activity and propaganda, Armenia and the Armenian lobby falsified historical facts and misled some international organisations and political circles in a number of developed countries into believing that their position is justified. But Azerbaijan's successful policy and our growing possibilities changed this. We are now carrying on a struggle with the Armenian lobby, and a successful one. Recently we nullified all efforts of the Armenian lobby. Azerbaijan's territorial integrity was once again confirmed. Armenia's policy towards Azerbaijan was criticised. It was indicated once again that Armenia has occupied not only seven Districts of Azerbaijan, but also NagornoKarabakh. This is our great political victory, because previously notable institutions and organisations directly involved in the peace process had not made such statements. Previously, in general, there could have been an impression that some mysterious armed Armenian forces occupied Azerbaijan's territory. After that we managed to have the international organisations show in their documents that it is precisely Armenia that had carried out ethnic cleansings against Azeris, resulting in the occupation of Azerbaijan's territory by Armenia. Now justice has been restored, and it has been indicated that Armenia also occupied NagornoKarabakh. In general, we need all these to define the framework of a possible peace agreement, meaning that there cannot be and will not be any peace agreement outside of this framework. Azerbaijan's absolute position stipulates this. I have stated many times that is problem can only be resolved within the framework of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. The Armenian people have already self-determined. They have their own state called Armenia. If they want to exercise their right for self-determination again, they should move from Karabakh to Armenia and self-determine there. We are loyal to these principles. I am very content that this direction dominates in the negotiation process and in the international organisations' approach. I would like to repeat that these factors have no practical meaning in whether the conflict is going to be resolved now or next year. But in the future, these, of course, would serve as necessary diplomatic assets, giving us political support and power and once again proving our fair position in the negotiation process or in case the latter fails. As for the resolution of the issue, I can tell you that the negotiations were confidential and we intend to keep it confidential, having agreed with the appropriate suggestion by the Minsk Group. This was the general approach. In spite of this, in the past few months, there have been untrue claims made by various sources about the negotiation process, alleging that an agreement has been reached based on some principles. This information is a blatant lie. And we are aware of its original source. As the political situation in Armenia worsens, members of their government are spreading false information among the people in order to appease them or to achieve their goals with regard to the upcoming parliamentary election. They are distorting the issues discussed during the talks and claim that the latter favour their position. I have said this many times. If that was the case, then why does Armenia threaten to stop negotiating on the eve of the parliamentary election? Why? If the talks favoured their position, then the government would be interested in intensifying them to improve their own political situation. In reality, such threats already demonstrate that the talks are carried out in the framework of Azerbaijan's position. And this is our position. We are sticking to his principle, as I have said. But since there have been different versions put forward by the Minsk Group co-chairs and representatives of Armenia, I would like to state Azerbaijan's position and mention the principles that form the basis for the negotiations again. I believe that it is apt to reveal this information here, it the opening of this town. Our demands consist of the unconditional liberation of all our territories. It is true that at earlier stages, there have been suggestions made to liberate only five Districts, leaving Kalbajar and Laçın out until later talks. We have never agreed on that, because we could never allow Kalbajar and Laçın to be returned to us on certain conditions. Therefore at the current stage of the negotiations, there is an agreement to liberate seven Districts from the occupying forces and to return them to Azerbaijan. Of course, we understand that this can be done in a step-by-step way, but this stage will not last long. We demand that after the signing of the peace treaty seven Districts are returned to Azerbaijan within a few years. Afterwards Azeris from NagornoKarabakh must return to their native lands. This is our condition on a point of principle. Our position on this has acquired enough value. Both the mediators of the conflict and the Armenian representatives have accepted this. Whatever lies they are now telling their people are not of interest to me. I am revealing the primary points of the negotiations to you, and only because the other party has violated this confidentiality. We do not hide our actions or plans from our people. What I have said so far is what I stand by and will stand by. Overall, the seven Districts must be returned unconditionally, and at the same time, Azeris must return to NagornoKarabakh, including Shusha. After that, NagornoKarabakh will define its status. How? There will be no status given to NagornoKarabakh without our approval. You are probably aware that recently there has been an illegal fake referendum held in NagornoKarabakh. No country recognised it. The United States, Russia and France, who co-chair the Minsk Group, did not recognise it and criticised it. The European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, other international organisations, Turkey, the GUAM states: Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine; all these states and organisations unanimously criticised the referendum and refused to recognise its results. That is to say that without our approval, there will not be a referendum or a vote held there. Azerbaijan will never agree on NagornoKarabakh's secession from Azerbaijan. We intend to restore our territorial integrity by any means. NagornoKarabakh may acquire a status, but only within Azerbaijan's boundaries. International experience shows this as well. Other countries, including those in Europe, have autonomous entities within themselves. To be a minority does not mean that one should claim independence in your country of residence, especially in the case where one came there as a guest. You know that the Armenians were settled here by Czarist Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth century, meaning they came to live here as guests. We are showing a constructive approach, a normal position. We are saying that it is alright for NagornoKarabakh to acquire a status. If we take into consideration that in the Soviet times NagornoKarabakh was an autonomous entity, that is, it possessed a certain status, this time it can be an even higher status. We have said that we would agree to grant any level of autonomy that exists in the world and that they desire; as long as it is within the borders of Azerbaijan. This is the initial condition. We will not concede any part of this position. It is a very positive fact that the international organisations, including the OSCE Minsk Group that is directly involved in the peace process, share our position. Peace keeping troops can be brought there. This in fact was never our wish. We do not deem this necessary. But we see that the Armenian side is very much afraid of us and wants to ensure its safety. We do not absolutely object the temporary involvement of peace keeping troops. There have been such precedents in the world. You know that in many other conflict zones peace keeping troops are always involved and serve there. At the same time, the Laçın corridor can be used to ensure immediate land communication between Armenia and NagornoKarabakh. Altogether, these are the main discussed principles. I have discussed the Azerbaijani position as it is. Whoever says otherwise plays for his or her own hand, or is represents Armenia, or other forces. Do not believe them. Believe me. I have never gone back on my words. I have done what I have said, be it politics, or economy, or our future plans. Three years ago, I stated that my goal was to create 600,000 new job positions. We are likely to fulfil this goal this year. I said that there would not be one tent camp left. There wouldn't, and we will have solved this year. I said that there would not be poverty, and its level has gone down. I said that we would build the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan, and we have. I said that we would build Baku–Tbilisi–Erzurum, and we have. I said that we must build the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway, and in a few months, we are starting its construction, thus via railway leaving Armenia completely out of all regional projects. After this, Armenia will never be able to compete with us. If they are concerned about their future, if they want to live in safety, if they do not wish to have a powerful neighbour ready to liberate its lands through military force such as Azerbaijan, and if they want to live in coexist in a friendly environment, they must choose to pull out of our lands and enable our people to return to their lands in a peaceful way. Dear brothers and sisters! I would like to stress again that I could have said these words elsewhere. There are rumours about these talks. I am saying again that it is unfortunate that certain weak political powers in Azerbaijan are joining efforts with Armenia to weaken Azerbaijan's position, or spread lies and libel about us. I could have said this elsewhere. I have said it here, before Shushavians, before our refugee and internally displaced brothers and sisters. I want to reassure you that the Azerbaijani state will never take steps that are contrary to national interests. We will protect our native land and restore our territorial integrity. I am greeting you once again. I congratulate you on the account of this beautiful town's opening. I wish you to live a happy life here, but only temporarily. You will definitely return to your native lands! Thank you.