Non-standard Interview on Standard Development

The date of the meeting is December 23 and the format of communication with journalists was new in the 15-year practice of the head of state. Usually Aliyev was not so open to the local press. Perhaps this fact can be included in the context of recent changes in the management system, which the President presented as institutional and personnel reforms in this interview.

Regarding domestic politics, the President made a special emphasis on these changes, designating them as rejuvenation, and not only as personnel, but also as a world outlook.

According to Aliyev, personnel replacements for people with new thinking will have to change the very philosophy of power and bring it into line with the requirements of the 21st century. However, the undemocratic municipal elections held on the same day showed that modern thinking has not yet penetrated the state-building system, where authoritarian thinking continues to have a negative impact on the course of events in the country.

The President announced the next year the continuation of personnel purges and the reform of the system, which included the change in the personnel of the parliament, which will be held next February. However, the undemocratic message of the past municipal elections suggests that there is no reason to expect a reform of the parliament’s role, with the exception of the personnel facade.

In general, Aliyev’s interview says that he understands the need for changes that are knocking on the door of Azerbaijan, but he is not internally ready to rethink the causes and consequences of the crisis that the country is suffering from, and which pushed the President to structural and personnel turmoil. This was emphasized by the jarring remarks addressed to the opposition and the thought of the need to bring a new opposition into the arena.

However, he did not say what to do with the classical opposition, the mention of which is recognition of its strength, and who will create the new opposition - time or power. It seems that we are talking about the second option, since in the first case the government has never kept up with the times.

For Azerbaijan, time has stood still in the foreign policy space. The President, intricately in some oriental manner, made it clear that he did not plan to accelerate the course of events around international integration in the face of the WTO and the expansion of the European space in the framework of the Eastern Partnership. This, as before, was justified by the need to protect state, national interests and the domestic market from European values, goods and services. Here are quotes from the President:

"Today Azerbaijan is not a member of the WTO. The time has not come for such a membership, since the basis of our exports today is oil and gas. In addition, we need to protect the domestic market and domestic producers in the field of industry and agriculture. Besides that, inside the WTO today there is a crisis: the United States is reviewing its membership in it, and the facts of trade wars between individual countries are evident. In such circumstances, our cautious approach to the issue of WTO membership is logical and justified."

“There is already a lot of talk about European integration in some circles. But the main question is what they mean when they talk about European integration. I believe we have already taken our steps towards European integration, and there is no need for further steps. Moreover, these steps will be ineffective."

As can be seen from the non-standard interview, from a political point of view the year 2020 will develop in a standard manner in the context of the contradictions between the need for change and unwillingness to implement this as soon as possible. This contradiction will be projected both on foreign and domestic policies, which together will provide shaky stability in the face of internal and external pressure factors.