Page 15 - DIVA_No.24_2006

Interview with Elchin Amirbayov

Ambassador of Azerbaijan

mutual enrichment of diffe- The Azerbaijani Democratic
rent cultures, religions and Republic (ADR) was pro-
civilizations. Undoubtedly, claimed on 28 May 1918 in
all this richness has shaped the territory of the eastern
and deeply influenced not part of the South Caucasus
only the history, culture and and was in fact the first par-
mentality of Azerbaijan and liamentary democracy in the
its people, but also the cour- Muslim World and whole
se of European and Asian Orient which was to play a
civilizations for many deca- historic role in the renais-
des and centuries to come. sance and formation of the
sense of ethnic identity and
It is gratifying to note that statehood of the Azerbaijani
the contemporary Oil nation. The development of
Strategy of Azerbaijan, that the ADR, as a nation state,
was conceived and orches- was based on the idea of
trated by former President "Azerbaijanism", which
of Azerbaijan Mr. Heydar hinged on the principles of
Alirza oglu Aliyev and modernism, Islamism and
which culminated in the Turkism, symbolizing peo-
construction of the strategic ple's aspiration for progress
Baky-Tbilisi-Ceyhan major based on preservation of its
oil export pipeline, this adherence to Islamic civili-
umbilical cord linking zation and Turkic culture
Azerbaijan and Georgia to and on their separate ethnic
Europe, was also meant, identity.
among other things, to revi-
ve the above-mentioned In spite of its brief existence
Q: Somebody once said half of the III millennium Great Silk Road and to rei- of only 23 months, the
"Azerba(/an has been hos- B.C. terate the geopolitical multi-party Azerbaijani par-
ting travelers since silk importance of Azerbaijan. liament and the coalition

worms started to spin". Now, since silk was mentio- government managed to
What kind of influence do ned, I should tell that one of In the history books we take a number of important
you think this had had on the routes of the Great Silk learn that Azerbaijan was steps in the process of
the culture and the people of Road that linked Eastern an independent country democratic nation-building
Azerba/an? and Western civilizations already in 1918, and that it and development of state-
between the Ancient and became part of the Soviet hood in political, economic,
I think the author of this Middle Ages passed through Union until the dissolution military and social fields,
adage was not far from the territory of present-day of the latter In 1991 your securing international reco-
truth, since Azerbaijan is Azerbaijan. It was a 4000 country once again became gnition for the young repu-
one of the areas of earliest mile-long network of inter- independent State. How blic as a full-fledged mem-
human settlement, with evi- connecting roads, or cara- would you characterize ber of the international com-
dence of human habitation van tracts that over the per- those years since you got munity of nations. On
since the Paleolithic Age. iod of almost 2000 years your independence back? January 11, 1920 the Paris
Cave paintings in Gobustan served as the major Peace Conference, with the
which is located in the vici- transportation means for Before I do so, let me quic- Treaty of Versailles, accor-
nity of capital city of Baky, trade in all kinds of com- kly dwell on that brief per- ded de facto recognition of
are dated by scholars to the mercial goods, including iod of independent the independence of
XII millennium BC. silk, between Europe, the Azerbaijani statehood from Azerbaijan.
According to Sumerian Middle East, India and 1918 to 1920 to which you
cuneiform sources, the first China. It also was an impor- referred, since the ideals and Though short-lived (on 28
State to arise on the territory tant channel of exchange of goals of that First Republic April 1920 Eleventh Red
of historical Azerbaijan was various know-how, skills were again in the agenda of Army annexed the territory
the state of Aratta, which and knowledge between the a newly independent of ADR and established
came into being in the first peoples and thus facilitated Azerbaijani state in 1991. Soviet rule there), this First

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