President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev On October 8, he gave an interview to the Moscow television channel “Russia 1”.
AZERTAC presents the interview.
Correspondent: Recently you spoke very openly about US sanctions against Azerbaijan. As is known, Russia now lives under the pressure of thousands of sanctions. Do you think that the sanctions policy has, in principle, any perspective?
President Ilham Aliyev: It has no right to exist, especially when these sanctions are illegal and applied in a totally unjustified and selective manner. Therefore, we are firmly against any sanctions and I believe that the international community should express its position in a unified manner. We express this position in relation to all sanctions imposed on us at the national level, and not only on us.
Sanctions were imposed on us in 1992, when the territories of Azerbaijan were under the occupation of Armenia, under the so-called accusation that our country “blockades Armenia.” These sanctions were lifted in 2001, when the United States had to transit its cargo by air, land and sea from the territory of Azerbaijan to Afghanistan. Regardless of party affiliation, the US president lifted these sanctions every year until the US withdrew from Afghanistan. After that, those sanctions were imposed on us again. When I accuse them of ingratitude, I don’t think it’s the harshest word to use in that context.
