Shusha Forum empowers Azerbaijan to gain global influence

The historical victory of Azerbaijan in the Patriotic War drew all the attention of the world media to Azerbaijan. This coincided with such a date that at that time, a myth built by Armenia for 30 years collapsed. However, the Western powers could not easily reconcile with this reality. Disinformation, biased statements, and informational attacks against Azerbaijan began to spread, especially in places where the French and Armenian lobbies were widespread.

President Ilham Aliyev mentioned this in his extensive speech at the 2nd Shusha Global Forum themed "Unmasking False Narratives: Confronting Disinformation" held on Saturday. In his answer to the question of a foreign media representative, the head of state also touched on interesting points. He said the following about the negative reactions to the joint decision that Azerbaijan would host an international event at COP28 next year: "Actually, almost the next day, maybe or the next week after the decision was made in favour of Baku, we became the subject of a media attack from the West.

It was expected. Many people with whom I discussed Azerbaijan’s presidency, I mean, among my colleagues, heads of state and government, were warning me that it would be a big headache. But we clearly realized that we would be the subject of attack. We could not predict what the topics of accusation would be, but we were sure there would be enough. But we started being accused of being a country rich with oil and gas. That was very strange because, by the way, the UAE COP28 President was also the subject of the same attacks, but unfortunately, it was such a broad, coordinated media process against us. At first, we were not prepared for that. We, of course, tried to explain that it is not our fault that we have oil and gas.”

Suppose that Azerbaijan is one of the countries rich in oil and gas. But why is Azerbaijan subjected to more accusations when it comes to other oil and gas producing countries?

First of all, it is illogical to blame a country for its natural resources. Secondly, although Azerbaijan's main income is more dependent on oil and gas, the reforms carried out in the country related to green energy and the work done so far are almost completely in line with global challenges.

Today, the COP Team operates with all its efforts in Azerbaijan, and the country continues to do a lot of effective work in fulfilling its obligations related to the climate problem.

If biased media subjects see all this and try to find only negative aspects, then there are different reasons. Answering the journalist's question, President Ilham Aliyev emphasized that the COP was also held in Glasgow, which is rich in oil and gas resources.

"Coming back to what we just discussed about this unfair coverage and double standards, we all know that one of the COPs was held in Glasgow, in an oil-producing part of the United Kingdom. No one accused the United Kingdom of its oil and gas. So this is just one illustration of what we were talking about," the President emphasized.

The biased and double-standard approach of the global media once again shows that Azerbaijan's international reputation seriously worries some organizations. If Azerbaijan plays the role of a bridge between the Global North and the Global South, why instead of benefiting more from it, they try to baselessly accuse Azerbaijan with their biased statements?

Azerbaijan has chaired the Non-Aligned Movement for 4 years in a row, and during that period, Azerbaijan was able to gain great trust in front of 120 countries.

Even as mentioned by President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan is one of the few countries, possibly the only in our part of the world, and the former Soviet Union, which has signed or adopted strategic partnership declarations and agreements with 10 members of the EU.

“The members of the EU are officially Azerbaijan’s strategic partners. We are members of the Islamic Cooperation Organization. We are members of the OPEC+ format. We work actively with oil-producing countries and have already proposals for how oil-producing countries can play a more instrumental role in accumulating finance,” he said.

The views of the head of state once again show that Azerbaijan is able to establish and manage both political and economic relations in a balanced manner. In general, the organization of the Global Media Forum for the second time in Shusha, the cultural capital of Azerbaijan, and President Ilham Aliyev's answers to the questions of journalists from over 50 countries of the world gave clear messages to the world. The head of state's detailed answers to the questions asked by journalists at the event, which lasted for more than four hours, are still being discussed in the world media today.

The II Shusha Global Media Forum, which lasted for three days, created ample opportunities for in-depth discussion of many priority issues with the participation of influential media organizations of the world. In particular, the most appropriate ways of joint struggle against disinformation, which is the most urgent problem today, were emphasised. By hosting such international events, Azerbaijan declared that it is always in favour of providing accurate and impartial information, protecting transparency, and, finally, always being on the side of the truth. The COP29 event, which everyone is looking forward to, gives great hope that it will create a broad platform for the analysis of many issues.