Azeri head's son lambasts opposition in his party's election campaign broadcast

Ilham Aliyev, son of Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, who tops the proportional list of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, used his party's election broadcast on 25th October to sharply criticize the leaders of the main opposition parties. Contrasting his father's achievements to the "chaos" in Azerbaijan when the current opposition were in power, Ilham Aliyev said the Party for National Independence of Azerbaijan leader Etibar Mammadov allowed financial considerations dictate who appeared on his party's proportional list. He accused First Deputy Chairman of the People's Front of Azerbaijan Party Ali Kerimov of accepting grants from international organizations which he would have to repay in some way in the future and, after rubbishing the academic record of Musavat Party leader Isa Gambar, he said Gambar's only achievement when he was in power had been sentencing seven people to death. After reminding people of the oil and gas revenue they could look forward to thanks to his father's policies, he urged people to vote for the ruling party on 5th November. The following is the text of report by Azerbaijani TV on 25th October

[Ilham Aliyev, captioned as deputy chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party, MP and vice-president of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic, appeared for the first time on Azerbaijani state television in his party's election campaign broadcast at 1700 gmt on 25th October. He was sitting behind a desk in the studio, Azerbaijan's national banner and the party's flag placed near him]

Dear compatriots, dear ladies and gentlemen! 5th November is the day of the parliamentary elections. It is natural that every party is carrying out its propaganda. Leaders of political parties, who say that there is no democracy in Azerbaijan, can freely speak today to their voters, they are holding meetings and appealing to their constituency on Azerbaijani state TV. They have forgotten everything. In 1993 Azerbaijan was in a state of crisis - economic, political and military crisis. The current opposition created that crisis, anarchy, chaos and disorder. The country was on the verge of disaster. The country was destroyed. Armenia was occupying Azerbaijani lands. There was a struggle for power inside the country. Over a year, the government of the PFAP [People's Front of Azerbaijan Party] - Musavat duo aroused such great hatred among the people that the people turfed out their government and demanded that Heydar Aliyev come to power. After this, the political and public situation in Azerbaijan became stable, gangs were disarmed, the war was stopped and development started.

Everything is developing in Azerbaijan. Our economic achievements are obvious. I do not want to waste your time today reading out these figures. They have been published in the press and reported on TV on many occasions. We took such great steps, we achieved such great success. We could achieve this only thanks to Heydar Aliyev's far-sighted and wise policy.

Azerbaijan has already assumed a worthy place in the world community. Economic reforms are being carried out in Azerbaijan. A privatization programme is being implemented. A stratum of owners is being created. Some opposition representatives say that there are no owners in Azerbaijan. How can they say this, when 62 per cent of GNP is produced by the private sector in the country. If there are no owners, who is working in the private sector? Are they not owners? We still have much to do in this direction. This is being realized all the time.

We have achieved great success in every sphere compared with 1993. Only after internal political and public stability was attained, we could do this. First of all, we had to stop the regression. We did this. In 1995, the public and political situation in Azerbaijan was stabilized and in this way good conditions were created for future development. All economic indices beginning from 1997 show that Azerbaijan is developing, Azerbaijan is living and one can see great progress in Azerbaijan. This is all statistics, this is all figures. Those who do not want to see this are taking advantage of television broadcasts to deceive the people. I regret that the opposition's election campaign is based on this very lie, slander and insults.

We have lots of achievements. I think that among them, our success in the oil sector is the greatest achievement. An oil strategy has been implemented in Azerbaijan since 1994. We have signed 20 contracts. No-one could imagine that Azerbaijan could sign the contract of the century. There were forces inside the country that did not want this. It was the current opposition. Because the worse the situation in Azerbaijan, the more this suits them. There were also external forces that disliked us and opposed this. But nevertheless we managed to achieve this. We signed 20 contracts. The Baku-Supsa oil pipeline was constructed. The Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline was reconstructed. We started producing oil from the Chirag field in 1997. The country gained bonuses. I can say that bonuses to the tune of 800m dollars flew into Azerbaijan's treasury, 150m dollars were paid by foreign companies to the state budget as taxes, our local companies gained over 600m dollars in this project.

The latest agreements on the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline give us grounds for saying that real work has started on implementation of the Baku-Ceyhan project. Do you not see this, members of the opposition? You simply do not want to see. Because you are not interested in this. Only lies and slander - this is your credo. But we are doing the real work. We have lots of work to do. A decision was made to set up an Oil Fund. A total of 236m dollars have been accumulated in the Oil Fund since the beginning of the year. This is our reserve fund. From this money we will allocate sums for different programmes - for solving social issues, for developing the economy, for investment and other fields. We are doing an accurate job, we base what we do on real facts, not idle talk. In 2005, Azerbaijan will gain 500m dollars from the contract on the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields alone. In 2007, Azerbaijan will gain 700m dollars from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli alone. After 2008, Azerbaijan will receive 1bn dollars every year from one contract alone. This is only one contract. But we have signed 20 contracts.

We have also put into operation the Shah-Deniz field. A total of 30bn-40bn cu.m. of gas will be produced from the Shah-Deniz field per year. In this way, the whole of Azerbaijan will be supplied with gas. At the same time, we will have a great export potential. Azerbaijan has turned into a gas country. Azerbaijan has held negotiations with Turkey on gas export. We will sell our gas to Europe in future. These are concrete deeds. These are the results. What have you, the opposition, done? Have you lifted a finger, have you done anything good for Azerbaijan? No. You were in power. You could have done this, you could have created. But you wrecked, crushed and robbed. This is your what you do. I did not want to waste your time today speaking about the opposition. But their dirty words, their slanderous campaign have made me talk about them. Do not stop us! We are creating, we are building. The facts are obvious. But you are only trying to make trouble and want the situation in Azerbaijan to get worse. The worse the situation in Azerbaijan, the more you will gain.

I have precise information that you even regret that Azerbaijan won medals in the Sydney Olympic Games. Only Armenia and our opposition were not happy with this. Why? Because Ilham Aliyev headed the national representative team. This is not Ilham Aliyev's victory. This is the victory of the entire Azerbaijani people. It is this sort of attitude and these sort of actions, of course, that make me tell you something about them.

[Chairman of the Party for National Independence of Azerbaijan] Etibar Mammadov in his speech on TV said that our national banner was dear only to him, belonged only to him and that it was alien to the authorities. I would like to recall that for the first time in contemporary history, Heydar Aliyev raised Azerbaijan's tricoloured national banner in Nakhichevan. Our tricoloured banner was accepted and raised at a session of the Nakhichevani Milli Majlis [parliament] in November 1990 as a state attribute of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic. At that time Etibar Mammadov was sitting in the parliament in Baku under the Soviet banner and Lenin monument. At that time Azerbaijan was not an independent state, but Heydar Aliyev raised this banner in Nakhichevan. Therefore, no-one should say such words about our banner. We have a saying in Azerbaijan: one is everywhere where you go. I want to put this another way: Etibar Mammadov is everywhere where there is money. Etibar Mammadov, who carried out his activities some time ago at the expense of [Ex-Speaker and Chairman of the Democratic Party] Rasul Guliyev's money, has now found a new source. Please, pay attention to his candidates' list. Who is placed second after him? A person who has done nothing of distinction and is not known by the people occupies second place after him on the proportional list. What factors force Etibar Mammadov to do this? Only money, only the finances of that person. You know, one must not turn politics into a bargain or a market.

For instance, [First Deputy Chairman of the People's Front of Azerbaijan Party, PFAP] Ali Kerimov, who is trying to speak on behalf of the People's Front, spoke about corruption here for 15 minutes. I want to recall that in 1969 when Heydar Aliyev started fighting against corruption, I can even say when he declared war on bribery, Ali Kerimov was going to kindergarten. Now he is talking about bribery and is trying to present himself as a fighter. It is very difficult to fight corruption by administrative means. We know this. This illness is present in all countries, including Azerbaijan. In order to eliminate it, we should use solely economic factors. A strong class of owners should be created, privatization should be accomplished. We are doing this all. Look, how many Azerbaijani citizens have become owners.

  I want to speak about one more issue and I want to ask a question, if you, Ali Kerimov, are carrying out a struggle like this against bribery. What about the grants you received? Are they not disguised bribes? What does a grant mean? A grant is a type of present. International organizations usually give these grants to countries, states and special projects, to construct certain objects or to purchase medical equipment, or in the form of humanitarian aid for refugees and the needy. Have you shared those grants with refugees or the families of martyrs? Or have you given some of that money you received to Karabakh invalids? Or maybe, you yourselves are refugees. Why is a political organization receiving grants? Will the international organizations that are financing you not demand tomorrow that you do something in exchange for the money? Of course, they will. We also know what you will do in exchange for this money.

[Leader of the Musavat Party] Isa Gambar said in his speech that he would come to power and he should come, that the authorities would go and they should go. You will come nowhere, and we will go nowhere. He says that he will come to correct the authorities' mistakes. I want to ask him - how can a person, who studied for his postgraduate for 11 years and could not write a thesis, correct the mistakes of a famous politician. We have been clearing up your mistakes for seven years and have not succeeded in doing this yet as you fouled up everything so much. No matter how contradictory it may seem, Isa Gambar headed Azerbaijan for some time, for about a month. What did he do during that month? Only one thing. He sentenced seven people to capital punishment and executed them by shooting. Do you want to come to power for this? Do you want to shed blood again?

Look at Rasul Guliyev's speech. I think the biggest failure of the Democratic Party in its election campaign was broadcasting Rasul Guliyev's speech. First, because his speech elicited only laughter, only Papuans could believe his figures and promises. In my opinion, such a speech is an insult and shows disrespect for the Azerbaijani people. Second, because there is no room and there should not be any room in Azerbaijani politics for mafiosi, robbers and criminals.

Dear viewers, I know that the Azerbaijanis are wise people. They proved this in 1993 when they brought Heydar Aliyev to Azerbaijan. I am sure that on 5th November the Azerbaijani people will once again demonstrate their wisdom and vote for the New Azerbaijan Party, Heydar Aliyev's party. Thank you.

Source: Azerbaijani TV, Channel One, Baku, in Azeri 1700 gmt 25 Oct 00

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Posted October 27, 2000 © Eurasianet
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