Ambassador of Kazakhstan explains the anti-Armenian stance of Nazarbayev
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakh to Armenia, Timur Urazaev, in a recent press conference, told about Kazakhstan and Nazarbayev’s fight against terrorism, tolerance, morality, justice and similar lofty ideas.
In an interview with Aravot, to our observation of whether you think that Nazarbayev loves Azerbaijani oil more than all of this and has a clear anti-Armenian policy, which he obviously showed after the April events in Karabakh, the ambassador replied, “I absolutely do not agree with you. First of all, why do we need Azerbaijani oil, we have our oil. For this reason to say that we love Azerbaijan more is groundless. You are talking about anti-Armenian policy but there is no such thing. Have you been in Kazakhstan? I would advise you to go and live in Kazakhstan, communicate with people and you will be sure that neither our president nor our society has any anti-Armenian and pro-Azerbaijani position. For in Kazakhstan, both Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Kazakhs are on an equal level. We have no such sentiments at all.”
The ambassador assured that they have friendly ties with Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan only based on their cultural considerations and with regards to political preferences, “we always say clearly and openly that our approach is constructive and we follow at a distance of what is connected to the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.” When the reporters asked a question about the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Timur Urazaev said, “When the Minsk Group is dealing with this issue, we have no legal right to intervene and give assessments.”
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Note that after what happened in the four-day war in Karabakh, President of Kazakhstan being an EaEU member and a CSTO member states, hugged Erdoğan. Hence, to our observation that you are kindly shaking hands with Aliyev and Erdoğan after what happened, and it is your assessment while you say that you have no right to give assessment, the ambassador replied that Erdoğan and Aliyev are Presidents elected by their people, “When our president meets with the presidents of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Armenia, he shakes hands with everyone, and it absolutely does not mean that there is love or any preference, we are just having normal relations with all countries. Any president first of all conditions his moves by what the interests of his people dictate. Therefore, we maintain equal relations with the countries.” Seeing Nazarbayev’s attitude after the April war, the inhabitants of Harich village, Shirak Marz, began tearing off the street signboards with the name Nazarbayev one by one, thus expressing their frustration. In an interview with Lragir.am, the mayor of Harich village said that after Nazarbayev’s words that Armenians are killing our brothers, Azerbaijanis are our brothers, they have removed all the photos of Nazarbayev from the Kazakhstan Corner located in the village library, throwing them directly into the trash box.
In this regard, the Ambassador in response to our question of whether he knows that Nazarbayev’s photos were thrown away in the Harich village, replied, “Throwing away is a little strong. We assume that these actions are about removing the street signboards and so on, it is the sovereign right of the local residents as well as some government agencies. It’s their right, we do not respond to it in any way. For comparison, no street in Kazakhstan was not renamed with such a noise and such humiliating manner. The Soviet names of the streets are changed in our country too but they were done exclusively based on the law and in a very quiet and slow process. We never did it demonstratively. And then, I think that what was done here was not a wise decision for we had never solicited to name this street after Nazarbayev and will never solicit for the opposite decision. We have not reacted in any way and are not going to react. It will be left to the conscience of people who have made such a decision.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
