NEWTIMES

The headquarters of the country's railroad commission is an imposing building. Lots of people climbed the stairs into the lobby where a dozen voting booths were used by dozens of people every few minutes to cast their short paper ballots for president. Out of each private voting booth came men and women who walked their ballots to a large clear plastic box with a slot on top. The ballots were inserted into the box to be counted after polls closed.

Azerbaijan is geographically located on East-West and North-South transportation corridors and its territories were used historically by Silk Road caravans. Therefore, revival of the Silk Road related initiatives would not leave Azerbaijan outside the plans and, on the contrary, would attempt to use the country's transit potential and natural resources as a driver on their way of development from Asia to Europe and back. It is obvious that Azerbaijan is also keen to transform these opportunities into benefits and share them with its neighbours.

Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Foreign Policy issues Novruz Mamamadov commented on the President's order to call the presidential elections at an earlier date.

Throughout the history of humankind the Caucasus has always been a tumultuous region. This primarily has to do with the region's geographic and strategic location as well as with the fact that it sits at the crossroads of different religions and civilizations. The very factors are significant for the identifying the geographic posture of the Caucasus in our millennium. That being said, the current situation's semblance of a powder keg is directly attributed to the mass resettlement of the Armenians in this region in the wake of Russia-Turkey and Russia-Iran wars. It is no coincidence that in the course of history in the last 200 years Armenians have undermined stability in the entire Caucasus and served the destructive purpose at the behest of the large powers in the capacity of a "fire iron". That destructive function has been evident in the independent republics of the South Caucasus – Azerbaijan and Georgia – and also all across the Caucasus in general.

Though the initial idea about the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway project was raised in the early 1990s, it was not taken seriously due to regional instability and economic difficulties. However, with the realization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipelines in 2006, the idea of a railway connection became real once again. The BTK, covering 850 km with a capacity of 5 million tons of cargo (upgradable to 15 million) per year and one million passengers (upgradable to three million), and connecting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, was launched in 2007 (Klimas and Humbatov, 2016:38; Uysal, 20 October 2014).It was launched without any international backing mainly because Armenia was left out due its occupation of nearly20 percent of Azerbaijani territory after a war in the early 1990s that ended in a cease-fire in May 1994.

The campaign of slur, slander and fabrications against Azerbaijan is ongoing in some media outlets in Europe. Two Belgian newspapers have recently joined the race. In their publications they have attacked the judge of Belgium's Constitutional Court Jean-Paul Moerman for the veracity of his remarks on Azerbaijan. Illogical as it may seem, the European media is accusing Moerman of pro-Azerbaijan bias. Mr. Moerman's truthful remarks concerning the Khojaly genocide, Armenia's aggression and indifference of the international community were not met with objectivity. There is seemingly a euphoria in the West that whenever anything positive is said of Azerbaijan it must certainly be refuted. And that absolutely defies any legal or moral boundaries.

On 10-11 September 2017, in Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan, The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) hold its first science and technology summit at the level of head of state and government. Astana Summit witnessed a historic milestone as it evolved a unified collective position at the highest levels of decision-making in OIC Member States with a view to advancing the different fields of science, technology and innovation, while emphasizing the Muslim world's resolve to promote scientific and technical development. The Summit was important as it underscored the Member States' support for scientific fields by demonstrating the Muslim world's knowledge contributions away from the negative stereotypes that have become widespread recently.

Here it goes again. Certain media outlets and pseudo-organizations have launched the next anti-Azerbaijan campaign. This time around their primary target is the President of Azerbaijan and his family. They have come up with bogus figures, alleging that some clandestine money transactions were made and act as if those allegations are backed by solid facts. But we all know that the song is old. They just added some new verses to it. Each time that Azerbaijan moves forward with an undertaking of international relevance, the envious ones resort to all sorts of fabrications. All of that is done against the backdrop of impotence and inaction of the Armenian authorities. While Azerbaijan has been very energetic on the international scene in the recent month Yerevan did nothing but complain and implore for help. To no avail by the way; those efforts cannot undermine Azerbaijan's posture. The rapid development and reforms across all areas will continue. The people of the country rally around the nation's leader. And given the enormous historical experience, the society cherishes the value of the independent statehood.

The problems faced by the European Union in the past few years encouraged the emergence of several scenarios for the bloc`s future. Experts give different forecasts, with many of them being pessimistic. Leaders of the 27 states who gathered in Rome to celebrate the European Union`s 60th anniversary signed the Rome Declaration. The document features a number of interesting points relating to the future of the organization. A deeper look at the declaration reveals that the EU is, in fact, on the verge of new transformations. But the main point here is that there is considerable uncertainty about the essence of these changes. The reason is that the European Union is now facing serious problems.

The problems faced by the European Union in the past few years encouraged the emergence of several scenarios for the bloc`s future. Experts give different forecasts, with many of them being pessimistic. Leaders of the 27 states who gathered in Rome to celebrate the European Union`s 60th anniversary signed the Rome Declaration. The document features a number of interesting points relating to the future of the organization. A deeper look at the declaration reveals that the EU is, in fact, on the verge of new transformations. But the main point here is that there is considerable uncertainty about the essence of these changes. The reason is that the European Union is now facing serious problems.