Domestic

Home page

Domestic

Ilham Aliyev: Azerbaijan leading implementation of Southern Gas Corridor

30 January 2017 11:30 (UTC +04:00)

The Southern Gas Corridor project is being implemented under Azerbaijan’s leadership, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Monday.

Azerbaijan managed to realize the projects of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipelines, President Aliyev said addressing a conference dedicated to the results of third year implementation of "The State Program on socio-economic development of Azerbaijani districts in 2014-2018".

The head of state said Azerbaijan has achieved its strategic goals despite the attempts of those who tried to prevent this.

“The Southern Gas Corridor project is being implemented. Had Azerbaijan not demonstrated its leadership qualities, the Southern Gas Corridor project could not have been possible. We are carrying out this project with friendly countries,” Ilham Aliyev said.

“Today, more countries are joining us. The Southern Gas Corridor project is being implemented under Azerbaijan’s leadership. The Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council in its joint statement especially emphasized Azerbaijan’s leadership role,” the president added.

He noted that this project serves long-term goals.

The head of state said Azerbaijan is a country that makes very efficient use of oil.

“Some analysts were saying that oil would give Azerbaijan bad luck rather than happiness,” President Aliyev said. “We have built a powerful state. We’ve been living independently for 25 years. More will be done in the future. At the center of these activities stand our people, without whom these achievements would have been impossible. We’re inspired by it. Moreover, we’ve carried out these activities under difficult circumstances.”

The president mentioned that Azerbaijan is facing a regular blackmailing campaign.

“We do know who the masterminds are and what they aim to achieve. They have been kicked out of the political sphere, though. The world sees that Azerbaijanis are a proud nation who won’t allow anyone to tell them what to do,” he added.