“When it comes to external influence, young people need to understand the goals behind it. It is one thing when this influence is well-intentioned. But unfortunately, we are faced with the situation when there are concrete plans behind it, and young people are considered the most convenient social base for their implementation,” President Ilham Aliyev said at the Youth Forum on 25th anniversary of Day of Azerbaijani Youth.
“Because they are young and more active. There are flaws in every society, and this is inevitable. We see that young people are the driving force of destructive movements in many places, including the post-Soviet space, the Middle East. We have seen this in the color revolutions and clashes in the Middle East. But the manipulators are hidden from sight. Young people are being guided and sacrificed, which results in the loss of control and de facto destruction of those countries. Take a look at the countries of the Middle East. Although the countries that are already facing this crisis formally retain their borders, they have no actual control over them. That means that the Middle East is still in the process of establishing new de facto borders. Even before these Arab revolutions, there was talk that the borders had been drawn incorrectly. We know very well who drew those borders. Representatives of certain countries penciled in new borders, thinking that they had the right to do so.
“Then they saw that these countries were growing, the population was increasing, some countries were getting richer and were no longer obeying. And they decided that it was time for another partitioning, which they implemented. I do not want to go into further detail, everybody knows what I mean. What happened in the end? The countries actually lost their independence and were split into several parts. In some parts, it is unclear who rules what, as if they are going back to primitive society. Who benefits from it? Those lurking behind the scenes. The “divide and conquer” principle is still relevant. This should be a lesson to us.
“I remember people here saying at the time of the Arab Spring that Azerbaijan should be part of it. But it had nothing to do with us, and there is no source of internal threat in Azerbaijan. Now let’s look at the post-Soviet space. The perpetrators there were essentially the same. How many color revolutions have there been in the post-Soviet space? Do the people of those countries live any better now? No. What happened? Chaos, anarchy, an uncontrollable state. Political strife, political reprisals. I cannot say that there was any economic advantage, on the contrary, no investments are made where stability is disrupted.
“We too faced this threat, and I remember well the time I was elected president in 2003. At that time, there were those who wanted to question my victory. But we were saving our main efforts for the parliamentary elections of 2005. At that time color revolutions were taking place in many post-Soviet countries, and there was an opinion that Azerbaijan would be next in line. But it never happened. Because, first of all, they were not supported by the people, and second, they chose the wrong players. Those puppet players could not accomplish their tasks and disgraced themselves.
“But did they stop trying? No. They moved on to new formats. They didn’t succeed in 2005, so they tried again in 2012. It didn’t work, so they saved it for later.
“Along with this, information provocations continue and news agencies are used for that. American President Donald Trump called The Washington Post and The New York Times fake news. His words, not mine. He knows better than we do what’s what, anyway. Fake news has already become a means of political struggle. First false information is disseminated, then, with the help of various cronies, this information is discussed as if it were a confirmed fact.
“Then analysis is conducted and the lie is implanted in people’s minds as truth. This is a very primitive technology, but, unfortunately, it works in some places. The managers are the same, that is, the major international NGOs. And all of them have been fighting against Azerbaijan for years, including in the Karabakh issue. In all these organizations Armenians are in the leading roles. I have their names, you can just look them up yourself: Freedom House, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Soros Foundation and its affiliate, Reporters Without Borders. All these NGOs have an anti-Azerbaijani stance and want to destroy our country.
“How are they funded? From the budgets of the major states. As they say, he who pays the piper calls the tune. Their target is Azerbaijan and its leadership. They used all other methods and they failed. They failed to make a revolution, failed to make a coup, failed to create discontent. They tried to use the Karabakh issue, but it didn’t work either. Today we have achieved a historic victory. So they are looking for new methods, and their target is the youth. They believe that it’s much easier to lead the youth astray.
“These attempts will continue. As long as we stand guard over our statehood and have an independent policy, this will continue. We have to make sure that you, the young people who will take responsibility for this country in the future, never let this happen. We defeated them on every platform, in politics and everywhere else. Their last card was the occupied lands, but they lost it too.
“Now they are making new plans together with Armenia. There is a well-known photo on the Internet of George Soros and Nikol Pashinyan. I don’t know if you have seen it or not, but you can easily find it. You will see how genuinely friendly they look standing there, huddled together like a two-headed dragon. That dragon turned out to be weak, it failed. But the truth is that the same forces are behind all the so-called revolutions. Everyone sees what revolutions lead to, including in Armenia.
“I am confident that Azerbaijani youth will never fall for these provocations. Young people of Azerbaijan have repeatedly demonstrated their greatness in civil life, in the army, on the border, everywhere, and I am convinced that they will continue to be active and successful in protecting the honor and dignity of our state,” the President said.
Translated from haqqın.az
Aze.Media
