Aliyev tells Azeri ambassadors to be active fighters against "Armenian lobby"
BAKU. Sept 22 (Interfax) - Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has urged diplomats to resist actively the "Armenian lobby" worldwide.
"The Armenian lobby is our biggest enemy. The Armenian lobby, the world Armenians, has chosen Azerbaijan to be their prime target. We must fight them constantly," Aliyev said at the fourth meeting of high-ranking Azeri diplomats. The Azeri official media published the president's speech.
The president complained about "articles full of false information aimed against Azerbaijan." "These circles want to blacken the positive image of our country. So our ambassadors, embassy staff members should always stay in touch with the media and explain the erroneousness of that policy," he said.
He offered diplomats to be more active in contacts with the foreign media and to supply fuller information about Azerbaijan, its development, the solution of economic and social problems and the provision of freedoms.
Aliyev said, in particular, that the Internet was a territory of freedom in Azerbaijan.
"Far from all countries have the unrestricted Internet. Some countries are considering Internet restrictions or censorship. We have the unrestricted Internet. Sixty-five percent of people in Azerbaijan are Internet users. How can we limit the media if Internet services are unrestricted here and the number of users is growing? All of our media outlets are free," the president stressed.
Azerbaijan "ensures full freedom of assembly," he said. "Any political force is free to hold its events in designated places. There have been such cases in the recent past. It is just that no one attends them."
The president also stressed that Azerbaijan provided full freedom of conscience. "Some countries should learn from Azerbaijan. The states, which artificially inflate Islamophobic trends, should come here and see how inter-religious relations should develop," Aliyev said.