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Fazil Aliyev: My main goal is to let the whole world know that Azerbaijanis live in Georgia

30 November 2007 13:18 (UTC +04:00)

Dossier:Fazil Nur-Mahammad Aliyev was born in Soganlig village of Gardabani region on January 16, 1963. He finished Soganlig secondary school in 1979 and the same year entered faculty of history of Azerbaijan Pedagogical University named after Nasiraddin Tusi. He did his military service in 1984-1986. He worked in Balakan region as a teacher in 1986-1988, later he returned to Georgia and joined national freedom movement. He was one of the closest supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia. In 1991-92 he was deputy head of Gardabani executive power. Fazil Aliyev started his business as from 1992. In 2003 he again retuned to political arena and elected parliamentarian from Democratic Movement Party proportionally. Fazil Aliyev was appointed president of International Council of Georgian Azerbaijanis in 2006.

-Why have you decided to run for presidential elections?
- My first goal is to let the whole world know that Azerbaijani Turks live in Georgia. Secondly, unlike some people, I want to show that Azerbaijanis know Georgian history, culture and religion. Azerbaijanis have integrated into Georgian society. By demonstrating political activeness, we also want to encourage Azerbaijani Turks, do our best so that they do not lag behind political life. As you know, Azerbaijanis are struggling for school directorship. Why couldnâ€™t we be director, while 600,000 Azerbaijanis live here and we have 300,000 electorate? Why could 5000 Greeks, unlike Azerbaijanis, be represented on the ministerial level? I respect all of these nations, but want to protect the rights of my people. I do my best so that Georgian Azerbaijanis can closely participate in statehood. I know very well how much is an Azeriâ€™s chance of being Georgian president. But my main goal is to participate in the parliamentary elections by launching active election campaign. We want to run for presidential elections in a party. We have already reached an agreement with our Georgian brothers on establishing a party that will bring together Azerbaijani electorate, as well as Georgians. I will be leader of the party, which will closely participate in ongoing political processes in Georgia. The party will lobby international contracts, for instance, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line and other projects. As to our todayâ€™s work, we have already done half of it. As a candidate I could collect 50 thousand signatures and passed registration. I rank 12 among 22 candidates. 9 candidates could not pass registration as their documents did not conform. 4 members of initiative group participating in the collection of signatures were Georgians, one was Azerbaijani. It shows that my Georgian brothers support me. Former President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze said that he will support me while he was delivering speech through TV. It shows that Azerbaijanis have great respect in Georgia. I am proud of it. On the other hand, my candidacy to presidential elections in Georgia was unexpected development in the history of Georgia. No Azerbaijani nominated himself for presidential elections in Georgia by now.
-How do you assess your chance to win?
-Everyone has less chance to win in the first round. 50+1% of votes should be collected for becoming president in Georgia. Present situation in the country shows that present authorities are not able to collect these votes. I suppose that second round of elections will be held. Two candidates who collected majority of votes will participate in the second round. One of them will probably be Saakashvili, the other will be someone from opposition. Taking all these into account I want to meet with Saakashvili and other leading political forces. My aim is to talk to Georgian Azerbaijanis on their problems. If anyone of them promises that they will try to solve problems of Azerbaijanis, we are ready to unite around him. Our main aim is to protect interests of Azerbaijanis, achieve release of our imprisoned journalists Gajar Huseynov and Telman Hasanov. As to my election platform, I can only say that I do not agree Georgiaâ€™s becoming NATO member. Because becoming member of the alliance will create tension in the country. Georgia will turn to the toy of neighboring states.
-What measures are taken on pre-election campaign?
-I do my best. As you know head of my election headquarters Dashgin Gulmammadov was detained. His detention badly impacted pre-election campaign. We were informed about his detention a day later. According to Georgian legislation, man should know causes of his detention, but we were not informed. No one confirmed the information wherever we phoned.
-There are rumors as if Russia has hand in the nomination of Fazil Aliyevâ€™s candidacyâ€¦
-It is lie. Some forces try to decrease rating of person through disinformation. I am Georgian citizen, Georgia is also my motherland. Georgians protect me here, no Russians. Some regard that I am Russian representative as I was once member of party of Aslan Abashidze and he is in Russia at present. Our second leader Choke Bakuria is in America, then it means that I am American representative. All these are false. /APA/