From the talk of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev with the Turkish ambassador to Great Britain Ozdam Sanber-Presidential Palace, May 19, 1999


Ozdam Sanber: Dear president, I`m very glad that your health is good. God bless You. Our President has also great wishes for You. I believe You`ll meet him in these days.

Heydar Aliyev: We went to Washington, we did much work there. We took part in the assembly of NATO. But I also held other meetings. I met Mr. Clinton, Mme. Albright. Then Mme. Albright gathered the presidents of the Caucasian countries - Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of some countries-England, France, Germany, Norway and Turkey. We held a very good assembly connected with the creation of peace and cooperation in the Caucasus.

Then Mme. Albright organized meeting between the president of Armenia and me. It was a face to face meeting, but then there was a meeting between three of us. Mme. Albright declared that Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict must be solved on the basis of the principles adopted in Lisbon Summit, that is the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, liberation of the occupied territories, return of the refugees to their lands, render self-government status to Nagorno-Karabakh under the authority of Azerbaijan. We talked with the President of the republic of Armenia face to face for two hours.

I had some other meetings. We signed three great new treaties. We signed these treaties in Senate at the presence of senators and congressmen.

I had many meetings in Congress, in Senate. The prohibition against us, the 907th item is an unjust thing. We couldn`t take it away yet. We talked much about it. We had a talk with the President Clinton. I`m very pleased.

But at the end of our visit my heart disturbed me a little. I was checked up there. My dear friend, my brother Suleyman Demirel assigned Ertan Pasha to me for four months, from January,1999.On You know I was ill in January, I went to Ankara. Ertan Pasha cured me there. When I came to Baku, he looked after me, inspected me. We went to Washington together. He always stayed with me, he said I need a correct inspection and he advised me to go to Cleveland Clinic. Because Ertan Pasha knows there very well. It is known in Turkey, too.

We went there from Washington. After I was inspected they said ,I need an operation. I said if there is a need, they might do it. Ertan Pasha did me many turns, I may say , all my health is under the control of the President of Turkey and Ertan Pasha is involved to this problem.

I gave my consent to the operation. The operation passed successfully. My friend, my brother Suleyman Demirel invited me to Turkey again. Tomorrow we are going to leave for Ankara by plane. I`m going to have a rest there, then I`m going to Baku to start my work.

Ozdem Sanber: I wished very much to see you here. I wanted to say my reverence to you and to give our president`s regards to you and I wanted to say he was waiting for you. You are the symbol of Azerbaijani- Turkish cooperation. The friendship between our respected president and You is making a strong foundation in expanding relations between Azerbaijan-Turkey and it is flourising. While relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey is in good condition, the relations in the Cauasus and in the whole region will be better. Because the stability in Turkey and in Azerbaijan is the stability in the Caucasus, and it means the stability of the region.
We are glad to see you healthy. We wish you to be more healthy and to have a long life. Turkish people knows you closely, their respect to you and to the statemen is endless. The relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey is natural. I think we`ll do great projects together in the years to come. There will be stability in Turkey.

Here, in London, we have united initiatives with the ambassador Mahmud Mammedkuliyev. For example, Turkish, Transcaucasian, central Asian parliament group was set up. This group consist of English and Turkish businessmen, friends from England and the members of the Parliament. There are many pressrepresentatives, they represent Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhistan. We speak Turkish with one another, but it is natural, we especially speak English. The leader of the group is the MP of England. We give information about the situation of the named countries in meetings. We, for example, speak about the recent economic issues in Azerbaijan, about the innovations in Turkey and so on. We speak about the problem that interests us much. For example, we talk about oil pipelines. As you know, the centre of all oil companies here is in London. I mean, we have an opportunity to introduce our countries much more here. We wanted to inform you about it.

Heydar Aliyev: It`s a nice initiative, I support it. You and our ambassador did a very good job. You must continue it. In general, we must draw nearer, involve England to the Caucasus. Last year when I was in an official visit here we signed a number of treaties. The Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Robin Cook said that they increased the number of employees twice in the British Embassy in Azerbaijan, because their work increased. When I met Robin Cook in Washington his first word to me was that he gave a permission to increase the number of employees in the British Embassy in Azerbaijan twice. Because they have to do much work.

I greet it with great pleasure. I met with Tony Blair there, we talked.

Ozdem Sanber: Now the occupation of twenty per cent of Azerbaijan territories by Armenia is not approved in England. Because it is against the norms of international low. That`s why we always say here that this problem must be solved in the frame of Minsk Group by peaceful way. And then there will be stability in the Caucasus. Turkey is always on the side of Azerbaijan.

Heydar Aliyev: When I was in the hospital, then in the hotel president Clinton sent a letter ,talked over the telephone. Mme. Albright sent a letter, talked over the telephone, the vice-president Ghor sent a letter .Two-three hours before leaving the hospital Mme. Albright phoned me, we had a long talk. Our talks were especially about the peace in the Caucasus, about the problems of solving the conflict between Armenia-Azerbaijan. That`s why I leave for my country with great hope. Because I felt and I understood that the USA already pays much attention to these problems and I suppose they`ll try much.

Translated from "Azerbaijan" newspaper, May 22,1999

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