Opinion48- Page

On January 8, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan outlined his country’s primary objectives, priorities, and current challenges for the upcoming year in an interview with local TV channels.

The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) claimed responsibility and vowed to continue attacking Jews across the globe as retribution for Israel’s close friendship with the majority-Muslim Republic of Azerbaijan.

Armenian neo-Nazis marched through the nation's capital - only one sign of a worrying trend of antisemitism in their country.

Progress in achieving a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan is likely, but the risk of flare-ups or a resurgence of full-scale war remains high.

Audacity is the key to success indeed. And for representatives of the US State Department, it is apparently the main and only one.

France and Azerbaijan, which have so much in common, seem to ignore each other. Whose fault is this? French politicians who use anti-Azerbaijani propaganda to their own advantage. Yet Azerbaijan remains a profoundly Francophile country.

On Thursday, the United States, under Secretary of State Antony Blinken, placed Azerbaijan on a religious freedom watchlist. This means Azerbaijan could be subject to potential sanctions unless improvements are implemented.

Europe would benefit from a swift signing of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, said Elchin Amirbayov, the Azerbaijani President's Special Representative, in an interview with the Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR).

The signing of the agreement establishing peace and interstate relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, barring any force majeure, is set to take place at the beginning of 2024.

The relationship between Azerbaijan and Iran is a topic that almost constantly remains in the focus of attention of the expert community.

This commentary delves into the evolution of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), highlighting its transformation from a consultative mechanism to a robust international entity with geostrategic significance.

After over three decades of conflict, a joint communique on December 7 between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated they were close to signing a peace treaty.

In the strategic perspective, the year 2023 can and should be considered as a period of time that serves as a benchmark for the integration of the Republic of Azerbaijan into the new world architecture with its own agenda, independent of global decision-making centers.

The release of a bilateral statement without the involvement of a third-party mediator is noteworthy.

The year 2023 is now engraved in Azerbaijan’s history as one of the four pivotal years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Jeyhun Bayramov admitted that he does not have an answer to how long the current atmosphere of tension between Paris and Baku will last.

For a long time, with its destructive actions, France has been undermining the prospects for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan by providing Armenia with various kinds of diplomatic, economic, and recently military support.

This was the biggest failure of French intelligence in recent years and another professional victory for the Azerbaijani intelligence services.

The end of the year is the time to sum up the political outcomes and identify the major winners and losers. There is no doubt that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev belongs to the first category, as his ingeniously conceived and implemented strategy led to the full restoration of our country's territorial integrity and sovereignty. The Karabakh region's anti-terrorist operation has become this strategy's next chapter.

French diplomacy is caught in another scandal with consequences. On December 26, French Ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Boillon was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she was informed that two employees of the French Embassy had been declared personae non gratae by the Azerbaijani government because of their activities incompatible with their diplomatic status and contrary to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. They were ordered to leave the territory of Azerbaijan within 48 hours.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the American news magazine Newsweek. It is unquestionably one of the most famous magazines not only in the US but in the world. It is the weekly magazine that has been the winner of the most prestigious awards in the publishing industry. But does its glorious past mean it is still respectable? I would like to say no. Why is that?

Today, December 24, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, son and successor to the cause of national leader Heydar Aliyev, a statesman whose name is linked to truly historic changes and events in Azerbaijan and the entire region, with the brilliant victory in Karabakh and the liberation of Azerbaijani lands from more than a quarter century of Armenian occupation at the top of the list, celebrates his birthday.

To begin with, let me recall what happened in late September this year, following the brilliantly conducted anti-terrorist operation in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

As one war in the Middle East rages on between Israel and Iran’s proxy Hamas, another war in the broader Middle East was recently concluded with lessons for the free world, especially the United States.