Simply a fact and nothing surprising

There you go, seriously and in fun, the incumbent President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, won the presidential elections on 15 October 2008. It is no surprise that almost all foreign media reporting the election campaign in Azerbaijan said it was "too quiet". That is indeed true. But this "quiet" campaign was preceded by five "boisterous" years of development which have been, and still are, an advertisement for Azerbaijan.

What expectations did we have? Quite ordinary ones, because many of us know very well what the West's policy of "double standards" can be like and that international observers and organizations are quite hard to please, even when you try hard.

Although some countries and organizations which have a standard response for any election result did as expected, even their reactions took significantly greater account of objective reality.

Meanwhile, recent world events, and Baku's position, demonstrate that it is wiser not to follow, but to do your job so that your own people benefit, not others. Acting on this principle, Azerbaijan showed the whole world that it can adhere to its policy of balance, correctness and belief in its direction. This is the position of a regional leader, both economically and politically.

This time we pleased them, although we did not try. "Quiet, but democratic," a rank-and-file citizen of Azerbaijan told Russia's Channel One in an interview.

The day after the elections, OSCE observers came up with their own assessment. They approved of the elections, pointing to considerable progress. But Europeans would not be Europeans if they did not include "but" in their rhetoric. European representatives had to demonstrate once again who actually has copyright on democracy and the right to have reservations - everything is fine, but could be better. For example, the head of the OSCE mission, Boris Frlec, observed that the current elections were much better than previous ones, but Azerbaijan "needs to make additional efforts to meet important international obligations". The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament also noted "considerable progress" in their joint statement. The latter stressed that the elections passed off positively and smoothly. The US State Department also noted progress in democratic standards of voting "in comparison with previous elections". On 17 October, it hurried to congratulate the Azerbaijani people on the holding of presidential elections. Immediately afterwards, GUAM and CIS observers also called the elections "democratic".

It is surprising, but true, that in the current difficult political situation in the world, Azerbaijan secured equally positive attitudes and congratulations from Europe and the USA, as well as from its post-Soviet neighbours. Almost at the same time, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received congratulations on his re-election from two conflicting neighbours - Russia and Georgia.

Thus, the sixth presidential elections in Azerbaijan confirmed the country's role as the "first violin" of the region. The strengthening of the country's political and economic positions in the region, and in the world, was backed up by real measures and action. This means that in the next five years, Azerbaijan's stable relations with the world will not undergo any significant change. This is how countries with a balanced economy behave, this is how the leading player in the region behaves, relying on support from the overwhelming majority of its voters; this is how democracy behaves.