Expectations and predictions were nearly the same on the presidential election in Azerbaijan that the ruling party will easily win re-election for seven more years on April 11. That raised question: What makes President Ilham Aliyev so popular among voters for a long time?
.jpg)
Peter M. Tase
Author, political-analyst and commentator
In his book “The foreign policy of Azerbaijan and its contributions to world peace”, an American writer, political-analyst and historian Peter M. Tase demonstrates that diversified foreign policy including sustainable development of bilateral ties between Azerbaijan and other countries, multicultural values, peace-oriented politics is the answer.
By paying close attention to the main aspects of the foreign policy of Azerbaijan such as economic relations, energy issues, political ties, international events in Baku, as well as Nagorno Karabakh conflict, author created an important guide for the well-rounded understanding of long-term politics.
Each chapter in his book takes on the political, cultural, social and economic approaches of mutual cooperation between Azerbaijan and each of the partner countries in the specific fields.
Touching upon the effective ties of Azerbaijan with Italy, Peter Tase drew a timeline of the development of relations. Citing the media coverage from both countries on friendly relations he pointed out how Azerbaijan plays an important role between East and West in terms of creating religious and cultural dialogue.
In addition, he also writes about mutual understanding and strong partnership in various fields between Azerbaijan-Hungary, Azerbaijan-Turkey and Azerbaijan-Japan.
Undeniable role of Azerbaijan in the energy-supply chain in the world is stressed in the book, too. Author says that taking advantage of the favorable geographical position of the country, Azerbaijan achieved significant progress in the launch of regional transport corridors together with its partners. The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) Railway, which increases the multi-modal transport volume and creates competitive environment for passenger and freight transport in Eurasia, has been already completed. This project is one of the most important components of the concept of Silk Road Economic Belt initiated by China. Baku meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran in 2016 gave an impetus along with other issues to the development of the North-South transport corridor.
President Ilham Aliyev’s speech at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos in 2018 saying Baku-Tbilisi-Kars changed the transportation map of the region is one of the key factors which make voters to follow his strong, multi-polar and determined policy and support him.
Peter argues that on the one hand Azerbaijan takes all steps towards the development of the country, but in the other hand there are destructive issues that negatively aspects to the sustainable development of Azerbaijan. Author writes that the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh which still remains under occupation of Armenia is not only regional but also global security threat for peace in the world.
However, author is too sanguine about the future prospects of the development of Azerbaijan and its contributions to the world peace despite all difficulties. He considers that next seven-year presidential term of Ilham Aliyev will be a great push for future achievements as he concluded during the Davos stating that oil and gas will come to an end one day. Future is innovation, efficiency, good governance, management, transparency and state support to entrepreneurship.
Farid Hasanov
