HEYDAR ALIYEV AZERRAIIAN OIL IN THE WORLD POLICY - w- AZERBAIJAN PUBLISHING HOUSE BAKU - Roopubllkooi Prtzldentinin If lor idarooi PREZlDENT KlTABXANASI The oil of Azerbaijan will serve mankind, peace and prosperity in future, too. 2 Heydar Aliyev President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Compilers: Ilham Aliyev, Akif Muradverdiyev © “Azerbaijan” Publishing House — 1998 HEYDAR ALIYEV Azerbaijan oil in the world policy c* TO THE READERS he Present Book offered to the readers deals with the oil policy of Heydar Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1997. “The successful implementa­ tion into life of “the Contract of the Century”, which has played a vital importance in the life of the Azerbaijan people in the recent years and in fact has been speeding the develop­ ment of oil industry, is a real step towards the XXI century. Extraction of early oil in the “Chirag-1” deposit in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea is the successful result of the foresighted state policy of President Heydar Aliyev. He was just when he said in his speech in the Republican Palace in the Solemn Ceremony on November 12, 1997: “The cele­ brations of today, the achievements gained by us are only due to the independence of Azerbaijan. Today we are witnessing the fruits of the state sovereignty of Azerbaijan”. Extraction of early oil in the platform “Chirag-1” is an event of great significance not only in the political, social and economic life of Azerbaijan, but it is also an event of world­ wide importance. This book, which is introduced to the readers, deals with the tireless efforts of President Heydar Aliyev for obtaining these achievements, with his negotiations during his visits to the USA, Russia and Italy, with meetings headed by him with the 5 HEYDAR ALIYEV Azerbaijan oil in the world policy presidents of the leading oil companies of the world and the signed contracts. Now, when getting acquainted with the documents of those visits we frequently come across the words “historical”, “tri­ umph”, “for the first time”, etc. It is really like that. The President of the sovereign Republic of Azerbaijan was on an official visit to the USA. During these visits he met the heads of the biggest world oil companies and held negotiations on the issues concerning the economy of Azerbaijan, particularly the development of the oil industry which is the main wealth of the republic. The meetings of Heydar Aliyev, a world-wide known politician, with foreign businessmen and representa­ tives of mass media can be described only by using the word “triumph”. The importance of these visits for the fate of Azerbaijan is very important. We think that the meetings of President Heydar Aliyev with heads of states, businessmen, his negotiations during these visits are the logical continuation and result of the process which have been going on in the politi­ cal, socio-economic and spiritual life of Azerbaijan in the recent four years. The visits of Heydar Aliyev this year are not only historical visits in essence, but factors which will have a great impact on the life of the Azerbaijan people though they cover only a short period of human life. The history draws the politicians to its flow very quickly at the time in which we live. At present ideas help man to choose a right direction, a right way consciously in extreme situations, in conditions full of sharp conflicts. Our people had already to make its choice when in the hard days of 1993 the nation faced an inevitable tragedy. The Azerbaijan people made a right choice with its soul, con­ sciousness, intellect and historical memory. And in the October of 1993 when our people celebrated solemnly the 7 с* fourth year anniversary of the election of its outstanding son to the post of president it once more proved the rightfulness and timeliness of its choice. It must be noted that the foundations of these visits, which are of exceptional significance for Azerbaijan, were laid just in 1993. “Since 1993 up to present we have tried to regulate our relations with the USA”, noted President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, “we have desired to improve and develop them ... we have gained great achievements in this sphere”. It is also important to note that, if we take into account the history of these relations, the personal relations of the presi­ dents of the USA and the Republic of Azerbaijan, the devel­ opment and strengthening of these relations fully coincide with those of the two countries. Their first meeting was in 1994 in New-York. Heydar Aliyev said that just at that time their personal relations were established and good foundations were laid for the regulation and development of relations between our peoples and countries. In the preceding years these meetings became regular and later became traditional: Budapest and Moscow, London and Paris, other meetings in other world countries... The geography of the meetings widened, the content of talks became deeper and more open, mutual personal relations grew stronger. Thus, the meeting of the two presidents during Heydar Aliyev’s visit to the USA in 1997 became a kind of turning point in strengthening the per­ sonal friendly relations of these two statesmen and also a start­ ing point in the development of these relations. When esti­ mating the joint statement on the USA - Azerbaijan relations the President of Azerbaijan noted that the aforesaid statement was not the product of one day, or an hour, its foundations were laid by the work carried out jointly since 1993. 8 HEYDAR ALIYEV Azerbaijan oil in the world policy c* Therefore, it is not surprising that these two interlocutors had talks for nearly four hours, much longer than planned by the White House. All this is quite natural and logical in the world of policy and human relations. Heydar Aliyev’s ideas serve great aspirations and missions, but all this is not understood and accepted by everybody in the same way. For majority they become a principle of behaviour and highest goal of life. For others they are only externally important, they never object against these ideas, but do not become accomplices in conviction fully as well. Not men­ tioning our opponents and open enemies, these people try to bring to nil the struggle of our countrymen for new life, to wipe this struggle out of memories of the nation. Nevertheless, these four years have been the years of remarkable events, meetings, visits, talks, elaboration of important documents. These four years have witnessed the Lisbon summit which resulted in adoption of concrete deci­ sions also necessary for every politician and diplomat serv­ ing the role of a university. In fact, any man, who wants to get rid off the ideological captivity of the past, who desires to have a look at himself from a distance, who wishes to listen to his own feelings, must experience the political school of Heydar Aliyev. If we approach all the aforesaid from this point of view, is it possi­ ble to accept the visits of delegations of our Republic to super­ states of the world as not having any relations with our histo­ ry, with our foundations, with the history of Azerbaijan, with the history of the Azerbaijan oil and with our present life? To understand the reasons of why the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan is so highly received by the heads of states we must not forget the fact that until recently we have 9 с* been living in a quiet, unnoticed, remotest corner of the world where the contradictions between the interests of the majority of population and the so-called “highest interests of the state” have led the country to disaster, the concept of “people, nation” was substituted by the word “population”. Even the men, who are unaware of the American traditions, of their historical idiosyncrasies and national psychology, understand that these visits and decisions adopted as a result of them could have been throughly an absurdity until 1993, though the factor of oil, and the oil itself existed before that as well. Many people abroad in comparison to some men in the Republic comprehended it at once and more quickly that Heydar Aliyev created the world of state power in Azerbaijan, established the concept of historical self - estimation in the memory of people, he proved that a true and right policy is an important chance for men’s and country’s freedom. He made it evident that our weakness may create conditions for some­ body’s gaining strength, he displayed by his own example that the Fortune’s Wheel may change the direction of its rotation and also how the knots of the past and future are tied togeth­ er; he explained that each social process has its own dynam­ ics and logic. In more broader and more objective sense it means that Heydar Aliyev was not confused in the most complicated instance of history, he estimated the ongoing events and processes in Azerbaijan not from a local point of view, but from that of the mankind. Such an ability is inherent only to a man who possesses a very wide political world outlook. Just because of this, it was quite natural that such a personality appeared on the political stage instead of temporary figures 10 с* Could the West, or the very East, support Azerbaijan moral­ ly and materially in that period? No, because some people stood waiting for something carefully and gazing around, some people hid themselves under their office tables, a third group marched to Baku. Therefore, those days full of heat were unordinary days in the life of the state and in the personal lives of citizens.