Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev gave his first interview in 2022 to local TV channels on January 12. In his interview, Aliyev reflected on 2021, touching upon social and economic areas, as well as his attitude to Armenia.
Mikroskop presents the main remarks from the President’s interview.
“This year’s budget will be the biggest budget in history. Budget expenditures will reach about 30 billion manats. For a country that has just emerged from war, these achievements show that there is a very good panorama in the economic sphere.”
“A very important event in the life of our country will take place tomorrow [13 January]. The foundation of a 240-megawatt wind power plant will be laid in Azerbaijan at the expense of foreign investors. The funds will be fully provided by foreign investors.”
“A few years ago we had to take a very difficult step. The depreciation of the manat had a negative impact on people’s well-being, but we had to take that step. Because if we hadn’t taken that step, we could have spent all our foreign exchange reserves. The fact that this step was delayed already led to a significant depletion of the Central Bank’s foreign exchange reserves. About $10 billion was spent to maintain the stability of the manat. As a result, the Central Bank could not keep the manat stable and we also lost $10 billion.”
“The increase of the price of bread was inevitable. The price of grain and wheat has risen sharply in the world. Our main supplier is the Russian side because we buy the cheapest wheat from Russia. Both prices and export duties have risen and continue to rise there. Of course, we could not artificially keep the price of bread at the previous level.”
“We regularly raise salaries. For example, if we look at the history of the past 10 years, we can see how much the minimum wage has been increased. Are we content with that? Of course not! But we must do everything possible. Comprehensive measures are being taken to improve people’s social well-being. The increase in salaries and pensions is only a part of this.”
“Participants of the second Karabakh war, i.e. disabled veterans and families of martyrs, were also provided with 750 apartments and this process continues. I think that people of this category, who took part in the first Karabakh war, will be provided with apartments possibly in full in two years, i.e. those who are in the line. The same conditions will be created for the veterans of the second Karabakh war in the next few years. I want to say again that this is our initiative. We have not seen it anywhere else. We did not bring this experience from anywhere.”
“This [rebuilding Karabakh] is indeed the largest program in history in terms of its proportions. As you mentioned, what makes this program quite special is that we are doing it at our own expense, without asking for or receiving help from anyone. Of course, there had to be a sequence here as well. This sequence has to be based on logic. First of all, what do we need? First of all, demining work should be carried out. Both ANAMA and the Ministry of Defense are active in this area, as is the Ministry of Emergency Situations. This process is going on. Unfortunately, we are still losing people. Since the war ended, about 200 Azerbaijani citizens – both civilian and soldiers – have been killed or seriously injured. Therefore, without doing this, we cannot start a large-scale return program.”
“Just imagine that there were no settlements in the parts of Kalbajar and Lachin districts bordering on Armenia in the Soviet times. No-one lived there and there were no roads for tens of kilometers from the border. It starts to snow there in October and the snow melts in May. Just imagine the scale of the work we had to carry out in a short time. I can say that many don’t know this. In those regions alone – in Kalbajar, Lachin, Zangilan and Gubadli – on the border with Armenia, we have built about 700 kilometers of roads. These can be considered service roads, military roads. These are roads leading to our positions, roads to borders, roads to high mountains, roads to hills.”
“Unfortunately, Armenia did not learn the lessons of the second Karabakh war. Therefore, we were able to do it [construction] in a very difficult situation, and today we are settled in all major checkpoints along the border. Not only have we settled there, we have also built a modern infrastructure to be able to serve there.”
“I have been working as President for 18 years and many personnel changes have been made on my initiative. Unfortunately, in some cases, personnel changes do not lead to a positive change in the situation. When new staff are appointed, they act in accordance with the instructions for a certain period of time, but then, over time, as they say, they go the old crooked way.”
“Public oversight will deter many officials from engaging in such criminal activities. Therefore, some institutional format of public oversight needs to be developed. You, the media, have a great role in this area. I can say that I sometimes learn about an unpleasant situation from you. I get this news from you and react immediately. I can say that the information provided in the media is in many cases confirmed.”
“Unfortunately, there are strong revanchist sentiments in Armenia, both in the government and in the opposition, and also in society. Unfortunately, we are seeing this in real life. Just yesterday, another military provocation was committed against Azerbaijani servicemen.”
“The second Karabakh war is not only a great victory for us, it is also a great experience in the field of operations. It has been a practical test of the Armed Forces not in training, but in real operations, and our Armed Forces came out of this test with dignity. However, the second Karabakh war also showed us what to do next, what elements of the military infrastructure we did not use, used in a very limited manner or that they were weak. This is also a great experience. For obvious reasons, I can’t say more now. The creation of a commando force is just one of the elements of improving our military capabilities, but it is also a very important element. This process has begun and, as I have already said, will be continued.”
“If we see even the slightest threat to our security, we will immediately crush it no matter where it is and no matter how deep it is in the territory of Armenia. Everyone, first of all, the Armenian leadership should know and understand this.”
