Aliyev says rise of IS is 'fruit' of Mideast policies

In an interview with Russia’s Rossiya 24 news channel, Aliyev was asked to share his thoughts on the "aggressive phenomenon” of Islamic State and whether Azerbaijan was concerned about the extremist Sunni group’s activities.

Aliyev said that in order to assess the situation properly, an understanding of where Islamic State came from is needed.

"[Islamic State] did not fly in from another planet,” Aliyev said.

The Azerbaijani president did not overtly specify which policies in the Middle East he believed had given rise to Islamic State, but his response to the question contains a dig at the United States and its Western allies.

"This proves once again that in matters of support for radical fanatical groups, more care and foresight is needed. You cannot divide terrorists into good and bad, so that a good terrorist is one that is fighting against your enemy and a bad terrorist is fighting against you," Aliyev said. "This is the central theme, I think, to which a solution should be found. Until it is solved by the leading countries of the world, until there is a common understanding of the war on terror and radicalism, then such a situation will constantly arise.”

Aliyev also talked about cooperation with Russia on a number of issues, including the oil and gas sector, electricity, transport and tourism, and well as culture and

education.

"We have over 300 schools that teach in Russian, some only in Russian. All our state universities have departments that teach in Russian. A branch of Moscow State University has also been created,” Aliyev said.