Elchibey: a combination of morality and politics

Baku / 20.06.18 / Turan: Today's conference organized by the Movement for Democracy and Prosperity of Azerbaijan (ADR) was dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the leader of the national-democratic movement in the period and after the collapse of the USSR, President Abulfaz Elchibey. Anar Asadli, chairman of the public association of the Civil Development Center of Globalizing Azerbaijan, made a report on the "Elchibey formula of the national ideological struggle of the late 20th century".

The main message of the report was the Elchbey concept, based on achieving maximum independence of the country, developing national self-awareness and self-identification, conducting liberal reforms covering the social, political, economic and other spheres.

According to the author, the concept had success and setbacks, and any leader can face it. During the one year of Elchibey's rule, which was overthrown by a coup d'état organized by external and internal forces in June 1993, he took the following steps to strengthen the country's independence and democracy: introduced the national currency, introduced liberal trade and economic relations, created gold and foreign exchange reserves, introduced a test system for taking exams in universities, passed laws on the guarantee of freedom of the media, minorities, ensured the stability of the monetary and monetary system, and the first among the republics that entered the CIS, wounded troops from the territory of the country, was preparing to pee international oil contract and so on.

The MP Vahid Ahmedov, then the first deputy prime minister in Elchibey's government, noted that the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of the country created conditions for the implementation of oil and gas, transport projects of regional and international level. The speeches expressed disagreement with the common opinion that Elchibey was a decent person and sincerely wished his country prosperity, but he was not a political leader worthy of the president.

"High morality and political will of Elchibey allowed the formation of a platform of principles of statehood in a short time," said writer Sabir Rustmahanli.

Elchibey was really positioned as an extraordinary personality - the bearer of the ideas of nationalism, Turkic unity and democracy. "He wanted to do something that no one in history could do, Elchibey tried to build democracy in the eastern and oil countries," said Arif Aliyev, a former spokesman for Elchibey.

This assessment corresponds to past and current foreign policy initiatives around Azerbaijan. The then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in 1992 after meeting with President Elchibey, described him as a strange person: when we talked with him about oil contracts, he said that oil belongs to future generations of Azerbaijan.

* Abulfaz Elchibey was born on June 24, 1938 in the Nakhchivan village of Keleki. He died of cancer on August 22, 2000 in the hospital in Ankara. Soviet dissident, leader of the Popular Front, president of 1992-1993. -0-