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Ambassador Tofig Abdullayev: “The relations between Azerbaijan and the Organization of Islamic Conference have reached a new stage” – INTERVIEW
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09 Nov 2009 17:04 ]
Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, permanent representative to the Organization of Islamic Conference Tofig Abdullayev interviewed by APA
-What role has the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) played in the solution of the problems of the Muslim world within 40 years?
-The Organization of Islamic Conference was founded at the conference of heads of Muslim state and government in Rabat, the capital of Morocco in 1969. Some days after the arson was committed in Al-Aqsa mosque, one of the two qiblas of the Islamic world and its third holiest site, in August, 1969, foreign ministers of 14 Muslim countries met in Cairo and accepted the proposal of the then king of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Abdul Aziz on holding a high-level summit of the Islamic states to discuss the situation in the Near East.
The Saudis took the first initiative to found an organization uniting Muslim countries. The idea of establishing “Pact of Islam” was first put forward by king of Saudi Arabia Saud bin Abdul Aziz in 1957 and was later improved by Faisal bin Abdul Aziz in 1965. But the idea was not realized due to the confrontation of the leaders of some countries closely cooperating with the Soviet Union. They considered that the aim is to establish an imperialist bloc “wearing turban”.
After the defeat of the United Arab Emirates and Syria in the six-day war, they began to need serious support of “conservative states”, first of all Saudi Arabia.
Muslim states held a summit under the slogan “For the protection of the holy values and the religion and first of all Al-Quds” in Rabat on September 22-25, 1969. This summit was the beginning of the idea to establish an international organization within Islamic solidarity.
The statement issued on September 23, 1969, envisages discussions among the participating states on cooperation in economy, science, culture, commitments on solving the problems basing on the goals and principles of the UN. The Organization of Islamic Conference has 57 members. Muslim communities of some states, a number of international and regional organizations have observation status under OIC.
-What has Azerbaijan gained from OIC membership? How many decisions have been passed on Azerbaijan and how much has been allocated for our country?
-Azerbaijan, which is an integral part of the Islamic world with its history, religious, cultural and moral values, became OIC member in December, 1991, and gained continuous support of the member states. Approximately three months later, the then Secretary General of OIC Hamid Algabid sent a delegation led by his assistant to Azerbaijan to study the Nagorno Karabakh problem and solve it peacefully. The delegation also visited Armenia, Iran, Turkey and Russia, met with the officials of these countries’ foreign ministries and UN special envoy Sairus Vens. After the delegation returned, OIC Secretary General made a statement on the situation in Nagorno Karabakh. In September, OIC foreign ministers coordination meeting was held during the session of the Un General Assembly. An item on Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict was included into the final document of the meeting. But due to some objective and subjective reasons, our republic could not effectively use OIC’s opportunities and Islamic factor. Heydar Aliyev realized these opportunities. His official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in July, 1994, his umrah, effective talks with Fahd bin Abdul Aziz and meetings with the officials of OIC General Secretariat increased the attention of the Muslim world to Azerbaijan.
Heydar Aliyev’s meetings with OIC Secretary General in Baku in November, 1994, activated the cooperation between Azerbaijan and OIC and played an important role in establishing diplomatic relations with a number of Muslim states and opening new embassies in Baku. After returning from visit OIC Secretary General sent letters to the heads of Muslim states, with which our republic had not established diplomatic relations, and drew their attention to the issue. Heydar Aliyev attended the 8th summit of OIC heads of state and government in Casablanca in December, 1994, he addressed the conference and on request of OIC General Secretariat and a number of member states made a greeting speech at the opening ceremony of the conference on behalf Asian group states of OIC. He also took an active part in the 7th conference of OIC heads of state and government in Tehran in December, 1998.
- What contribution can OIC make to the solution to Nagorno Karabakh conflict? Does the organization have an intention to participate in the restoration of the region after the settlement of the conflict?
- As a result of intensive and purposeful activity of the Republican leadership, OIC foreign ministers’ 21st Karachi conference in 1993, 7th extraordinary conference in September 1994, 22nd conference in Casablanca in December 1994, 23rd Jakarta conference in December 1996 heard reports of the OIC Secretary General on Nagorno Karabakh conflict and adopted resolution on the issue.
The resolutions strongly condemned Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan and demanded immediate withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied Azerbaijani lands and respect to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. For the first time the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict was included in the list of problems addressed jointly by OIC-UN cooperation in 1994 and it was very important for Azerbaijan.
As a result of purposeful activity of the Republican leadership, the title of OIC resolution on Nagorno Karabakh conflict was changed from “Resolution on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan” to “Resolution on Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan” in 1993. Besides this resolution adopted in annual meetings of the OIC foreign ministers and in the OIC summit every three years, OIC Standing Committee for Commercial and Economic Relations (COMCEC) have passed annual resolutions condemning the Armenian aggression since 1993.
- What events are planned for the 40th anniversary celebration of the organization? Will the leaders gather for their summit?
- Recently very important event has been held in Baku on the eve of OIC 40 years. Everyone knows that UN General Assembly March 14, 2008 resolution on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan was adopted as a result of great support by the OIC member countries and “attack diplomacy” set by President Ilham Aliyev before the Azerbaijani diplomats. OIC as an international political organization is forming its budget at the expense of membership fees of the countries and have no opportunities to provide humanitarian assistances to the Muslim countries facing with the problems. The assistances and long-time loans are carried out bilaterally by the humanitarian international organizations, financial institutions and OIC member countries as well. The projects realized in Azerbaijan by the Islamic Development Bank, Saudi Development Fund, Kuwaiti Fund, International Islamic Relief Organization, International Islamic Youth Assembly and other organizations confirm that.
In recent years, Azerbaijan-OIC relations have entered new stage. President Ilham Aliyev’s participation at the OIC Third Summit in Mecca in December, 2005 and 33rd OIC ministerial meeting in Baku could be estimated as a part of this policy.
Series measures have been carried out in the field of cooperation with OIC in recent years, including OIC tourism ministers’ 5th conference in September 2006, conference on the role of mass media in the development of tolerance and mutual understanding in April 2007, International Forum on the Role of Women in the Cross-Culture Dialogue on June 10-11, 2008 on the initiative of the President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Khanum Aliyeva, 4th conference of the ministers of education and scientific research of the Islamic countries on October 6-8, 2008, OIC law-enforcement officials’ meeting on April 21-22, 2009, 6th conference of OIC culture ministers on October 13-15, 2009 and others.
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