Azerbaijan's foreign policy is oriented towards West, society - to IslamMay 24, 2007 - 15:30 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - "Azerbaijan's foreign policy is oriented towards the West, while the society prefers the Islamic way of development," Director of Peace and War Institute of Baku Arif Yunusov stated at the conference in Yerevan organized by the Caucasian Media Institute. He said beginning from 2004 Islam is not used in negative context in the Azeri press. "I must notice that West for Azerbaijan is not only the U.S., but also Turkey, Israel and other states. We prefer to move towards the Turkish direction. There also exists a danger of involving Azerbaijan in the war against Iran, if such a thing happens. It's true that Azerbaijan will not be in the foreground, it may be used by the United States as a subsidiary bridgehead. In this case a humanitarian catastrophe awaits us. Some 40-50 thousands of refugees from Iran have already flooded Baku who buy apartments. And what will happen in case of military invasion? It is even terrible to think about it. The border between the two countries is rather transparent and about one million refugees may arrive in Azerbaijan and our country just will not be able to accept them," Yunusov said. Top stories Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Moscow on April 22 to hold talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". Partner news | Putin congratulates Pashinyan’s birthday Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on his birthday on June 1. Opposition motorcade en route to Gyumri for large rally A motorcade of protesters headed by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan is heading to the city of Gyumri. Ruling MPs, Foreign Minister talk Armenia-Azerbaijan processes MOs from the ruling Civil Contract party met with the Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in the Armenian parliament. Russia: Armenia’s frozen membership weakens CSTO position in Caucasus A Russian envoy said any step that could alienate the CSTO member states from each other is “deeply wrong”. |