Abbes Benmoussat, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Algeria in Azerbaijan gave an interview to Eurasia Diary. During the meeting he also touched on Azerbaijan’s Karabakh conflict.

- First of all, we would like to express our gratitude for your interview. We reassure that your country has always been under focus of interests by our readers. What would you like to say about Algeria and Azerbaijan’s historical and current relations?

Thank you for coming to our Embassy in Baku. I would like say our readers the relations between Azerbaijan and Algeria have a long history since the former Soviet time. During the Soviet Union many Azerbaijanis visited Algeria for new business relations in different fields. Besides that, after the collapse of the regime and reestablishment of the independence in Azerbaijan the Algerian government used to support young students to study at Azerbaijan State Oil Academy and Azerbaijan State Marine Academy in Baku. That was the initial process of our cooperation. After the recognition of Azerbaijan’s independence in 1992 the government of Algeria gave tart to diplomatic relation with Azerbaijan Republic. Our mission was carried on from the office in Moscow until we opened the embassy in Baku in 2015. In 2016 Embassy of Azerbaijan was opened in Algeria as well and since then we have been cooperating in parallel.     

Dear Ambassador, what would say about the future prospects of cooperation in various fields between Azerbaijan and Algeria? As media leaked, Algeria is interested in co-op of innovative technologies and science.

There are many business fields in terms of cooperation in Azerbaijan. When I came to Azerbaijan I made researches about science and technologies. However, there are other fields like trade and oil. In order to realize robust business cooperation within the law, every business has to have legal basis. We are at the stage of concluding the establishment of such a legal basis. The Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan republic had a visit in Algeria. During the visit the two ministers of the countries signed a memorandum of submitting the criminals. In line with the memorandum there is a plan to sign additional agreements in businesses of trade, economics and oil. With the help of Allah we will put them all in practice.   

As is known, many of Arab states fight against several gangs of terrorists. If I am not mistaken, among those states there is also Algeria. Could you talk a little about those radical terror organizations pretending as religious groups?   

We are very experienced in combating the terrorist groups. As you know, one of the parties Algeria declared the activity of a new Islamic party by advantaging from the liberty. In the 1980s they went far more than the limits trying to take the government under its control by hooks or crooks. They wanted to apply the state principles of Saudi Arabia urging all to abide the rule of “amr bil maroof and nahiy al munkar (inviting all for good deeds and avoiding evil things).” This was totally against the constitution where the government abolished that system in the country.

I reject the fact which was spread by Mass Media claiming the system was demolished by the military power. It’s a false information. The military supported the government as their ideas were contradicting the constitution. They alleged the Finance Ministry system should have been changed urging the treasure of the state to be shared in community. Despite that time all evil powers had united against our government we could defeat and protect our sovereignty. Now our military secure the 7500km borders of country’s territory. Thanks to Allah, we live in peace and security.       

Obviously, Algeria is also like Azerbaijan in terms of oil and gas production. We would like you to give us a brief outline about income management and overall experience in the relate field.  

Our oil production is as much as in Azerbaijan. The export of gas is relatively high. After the presidency of Abdulaziz Buteflika since 1999, our income reached by 1.2 billion in 20 years. Everything is transparent in Algeria. We keep note of expenses from income. We built more than 5000 apartments, and 30% of which have been given to poor community. The number of apartments were built to accommodate families with 4 children, where 30 000 people could have their own houses in total.   

In villages each family received 10 000 USD subsidies from the government to build their own hoses. This amount is more than enough for family in the village to build whatever house he wants with all facilities.

We have 600 hospitals, 114 universities, 85 water reservoirs and roads with 140 000 km distance in total.

Dear Ambassador, as you know, Azerbaijan is still struggling to gain its occupied territories. What is the political view of you government to the unresolved Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia?     

Algeria promotes one motto: We have been colony and we know what the occupation is like. We have been the only county suffering from this among other colonized countries in the past. We are against the notion of occupation. Krabakh is the occupied territory of Azerbaijan and it has to be returned to Azerbaijan with respect to the UN international law. 

Interview by Doctor of Philosopy Zakir Qasimov and journalist Hashim Mammadov