RELIGIOUS FACTOR OR AN INTRUSION OF VALUES

-Farid Mustafyevich, many people in Azerbaijan link you with a whole epoch - a journalist who has singly done the work of a whole "Al-Jazeera". It was you who revealed to the ordinary Soviet audience what was really going on in the Arab world…

- Azerbaijan has been a very close country for me. The last time I was in Baku was in 2007 when I was invited by the Azerbaijani State Television and Radio Company. I spoke to students at Baku State University and met with a number of academics and political experts. I got to know Heydar Aliyev well and I accompanied him on his visit to Syria in 1983. When he was first secretary of the Azerbaijani Communist Party Central Committee I often attended various conferences in Baku. Heydar Aliyev was a statesman for whom I had a lot of respect. Incidentally, I prepared a dispatch about Iranian Azerbaijanis on Soviet Television.

- Farid Mustafyevich, almost the whole of the Arab world is a hot spot: Syria, Egypt, Libya, Palestine and permanently Tunisia, and there are smouldering internal conflicts in Bahrain and Lebanon. What on earth is happening in North Africa and the Near East?

- I believe this is a new phase in the development of this region. A similar new phase occurred after the Second World War when there was a surge of the anti-colonial movement. A process of creating new independent states began. Strengthening political and economic independence became a subject of concern for the political elite and organizations. At the time the factor of religion and faith did not play a particular role. Unfortunately, there has not been any significant progress in this region in the past 50 years. Despite the great efforts of such distinguished figures as Gamal Abdel Nasser and others, there has not been a great deal of development in the Arab world.

Now, following the upheavals the world has experienced since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the confrontation between the two super-powers and the establishment of a unipolar world order in the form of the USA, which pursues an individual global policy, the situation in the world, and the Near East in particular, has started to change. With the US' advancement into this region, its invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and interference in the affairs of Libya and Syria, as well as the war against the so-called "al-Qa'eda", the religious factor has assumed a leading role. And there is nothing the USA can do about it. They seemed to want to support the anti-religious forces but it has all backfired against them. The religious factor has become one of the main factors that determine the political and social situation in the region. This is undoubtedly a new period in history and Russia is not playing any practical role in these processes. At one time Moscow supported the pro-Soviet, pro-socialist forces in the region, but this led to nothing positive. Many of these countries have turned out to be essentially anti-Russian.

- Can you predict what all this will lead to? There have been suggestions that the "Arab spring" could provoke a war of civilizations.

- There is no way one can predict future events in North Africa and the Near East. Basically it is a struggle between radically minded Islamists and the western influence, in particular the US and its allies. Incidentally, this is what happened before.  I have travelled a great deal in the Persian Gulf and there have often been complaints at the intrusion of western values and culture into the traditional world of these states. This has now developed into a confrontation on all fronts. Moreover, anti-Islamic forces in the west have resorted to scandalous provocative actions against Islamic shrines. All this is gradually exacerbating the situation in the region.