Morocco, Azerbaijan enjoy good relations in all fields: Hassan Hami
AzerTAc interviewed Ambassador of Morocco Hassan Hami.
Question: You welcomed the present level of political and economic cooperation between Morocco and Azerbaijan. What else can you say about it?
Answer: There are close ties between His Highness King Mohammed VI of Morocco and President Ilham Aliyev. We, ambassadors, were instructed to upgrade the existing relations. We of course have good relations in culture and there are close friendship links between the people of Morocco and Azerbaijan. As you know, the parliamentary delegation of Morocco is currently visiting Azerbaijan. The delegation is scheduled to hold meetings at Azerbaijan's parliament and a number of governmental agencies. Moreover, the Azerbaijan-Morocco joint commission will convene its meeting this year. The talks on the date of the meeting are underway. The meeting is planned to be presided over by Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan and Salahuddin Mizwar of Morocco.
Q.: What are the prospects for the cultural and educational ties between Morocco and Azerbaijan? Are any new projects expected to be developed and implemented this year between the two states?
A.: Our cultural ties are very good. The Culture Days were conducted in both countries after opening of the Morocco`s embassy in Baku in 2009 and Azerbaijan`s embassy in Rabat in 2007. Another Azerbaijan`s Cultural Days are expected shortly to be held in Morocco. In addition, Morocco regularly participates in the international mugham festival and conferences on intercivilizational and intercultural dialogue hosted by Azerbaijan. The embassy also joins all symposiums organized by the Azerbaijani academies and universities.
The education ministers of our countries are ready to sign an agreement on cooperation. A number of agreements on economy, education, culture, health etc are expected to be inked at the meeting of the joint commission.
Last year, Mohammed V University and Baku State University clinched an agreement on cooperation. What interests us most is teaching the Azerbaijani language at Moroccan universities.
Q.: Both Morocco and Azerbaijan have great tourism opportunities. How do you appraise prospects for cooperation in this sector?
A.: Azerbaijan and Morocco inked a cooperation agreement on tourism and culture in 2007. If I am not wrong, this agreement opens up opportunities for not only tourist exchange, organization of reciprocal visits, but also cooperation on tourism infrastructure. By creating its tourism firms, Morocco is ready to provide its assistance. Our country has great experience in the tourism sector. Azerbaijan, which has big tourism opportunities, can make use of Morocco's experience. We are ready to offer our assistance. Last year, over a thousand Azerbaijani tourists visited Morocco.
Q.: What other agreements are expected to be signed at the meeting of the intergovernmental commission?
A.: I mentioned this earlier in the conversation. I want to add that we have completed our work on a number of agreements and will tackle other minor issues shortly. This agreements deal with elimination of double taxation, health, investments, education, ICT and others. The other important agreement is associated with the disaster response cooperation.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, I want to say that the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and respective organizations in Morocco may build relations. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation is headed by Azerbaijan's First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva whereas the similar organizations in Morocco are led by the King`s spouse Salma and his sisters. These organizations deal with the health and women`s affairs. There is an opportunity for cooperation.
Q.: You are also a writer. The main character of your novel is an Azerbaijani woman who searched for common roots between Caucasus and Scandinavia. Characters of your other two novels are Azerbaijanis too. Why Azerbaijanis?
A.: There is a simple answer. As a diplomat, I do not only prepare presentations on the economic and political situation in the country where I live but also write about the countries` peoples. This helps me as a diplomat to understand cultures. Customs and mentality of people are interesting. Only through this, one can understand politics and economy. Before that, I wrote about many other countries.
The novel you mentioned narrates on the struggle for oil, energy and gas in the Middle East, Caucasus. There are negative influences of this fight. There is an impact on environment and climate. After reading historical roots of Azerbaijan and other nations, I saw that there are assumptions on Vikings' passing here. I used to work in Norway and there is a meal cooked in the north of this country. It is cooked by steam. People say this meal is made only in the Scandinavian countries. However, this meal is made the same way in the north of Morocco too. While in Shaki two years ago, I witnessed cooking the same meal with this method. I concluded there are some common roots too.
I am very much interested in the environmental issues. I made up my mind to write a novel on this issue. One of the four female characters is an Azerbaijani woman. The topic is the climate change. The women include two Americans (one of them of Danish origin), one Azerbaijani and the other one is Moroccan.
I dedicated the other novel to the family relations.
Q.: Mr. Ambassador, thank you for the interesting conversation and we wish you every success in your diplomatic and literary activities.
A.: I thank you and all journalists. I used to be a journalist too.