"People are divided into categories, nations and religions again […] What does it mean? This is fascism, racism, xenophobia. Is fascism lifting up its head again in Europe?" the president said at a meeting with members of the public during a visit to the Agsu district of the republic on Thursday.

Aliyev recalled: "As fascism is evil, it was not brought about in the Muslim world." "We are well aware where it has appeared. They want it to be forgotten. The West is deliberately giving distorted information about World War II. They want to play down the heroism demonstrated in this war by the Soviet army, including the Azerbaijani people," the head of state said.

He said that "Islamophobia is a very serious threat." "This is also a danger for us, because we are Muslims, the danger is also for them," Aliyev said.

This confrontation has an ideological foundation, because this is the struggle for natural resources and spheres of influence, he said.

Aliyev said that Azerbaijan would cope with the attempts by certain circles in the West to exert influence on the republic and would leave unattended no demarche against Baku.

"If they are criticizing us, this means that we are on the right path," he said, expressing confidence that sooner or later the Azerbaijani model of peaceful coexistence by representatives of different nations and religions will be studied and adopted by other countries as well.

 

(Interfax)