On July 21, an opening ceremony of the Shusha Global Media Forum on "New Media in the Era of the 4th Industrial Revolution" has been held, the Press Office of the Azerbaijani President reported. Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan, attended the Forum's opening ceremony and answered the questions.

Regarding essential threats to the country, Aliyev emphasized, "We should not forget that even now, despite the results of the Second Karabakh War, there are people in Armenia in different segments including government and in other parts of society, which live with revanchist ideas, and they do not hide it. Therefore, we must be ready for any kind of scenario."

Talking about relations with Russia, he stated, "Despite such a serious change in the geopolitical situation, the development of relations between Russia and Azerbaijan since the signing of the Declaration has been quite successful. Taking the opportunity of the presence of media representatives here and the fact that you will discuss these issues tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, both cooperation and problematic issues, I would like to say that those small rough edges that we see in the Russian media about Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani media about Russia do not influence the policy of Azerbaijan and Russia."

Regarding relations with Armenia, the Azerbaijani President added, "At the moment, we have three international actors who are assisting - the United States, Russia, and the European Union. And on three tracks, Azerbaijan works in good faith and with a result-oriented approach. But so far, it did not end in any result. Because Armenia needs to make, I think, one of the final steps. They already made several steps after the war; I would say that these were not the steps they made voluntarily. They already accepted that Karabakh is Azerbaijan publicly. Now they need to put their signature under the document."

Aliyev said about the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline project: "I want to repeat that this is not the project which Azerbaijan will initiate. Because usually, the projects are initiated by the countries, and other projects are based on these country's resources, as we did, for instance, with the Southern Gas Corridor. As an idea, this project is based on Turkmenistan's gas resources. Therefore, it's not up to us to initiate it or to invest in it. What can we do? We can provide our existing infrastructure or land to build new infrastructure." 

He also talked about the energy relations with Europe. "Azerbaijan is working on expanding the pipeline built less than three years ago. Why? Because demand in Europe is growing. The pipeline, designed for ten bcm like TAP, now needs to be expanded to 20 bcm. TANAP from 16 to 32. We did not expect that. Because the situation has changed, so, why we talk about expansion is that Azerbaijan will produce more gas and is producing every year more gas than the year before. For instance, in 2021, we exported 19 bcm; last year, it was more than 22 bcm; this year, it will probably be 24 bcm or even more. And these months - that's in the time when we didn't see each other - we already announced the discovery of the Absheron gas field, which possesses at least 300 billion cubic meters. The first well is already producing more gas than any well on Shahdeniz. In other words, the expansion of our pipeline system is based on our growing resources. For additional gas from the Eastern shores of the Caspian, first, the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline must be built under the sea. Second, something like the Southern Gas Corridor must be built from Baku to the European destination. And the main question is, who will finance these important projects? And we don't have an answer. Therefore, before we find an answer to who will finance it, I think implementation or even some ideas about that will be unrealistic. Also, you know very well that now European banks stopped financing projects with fossil fuels. Therefore, raising substantial money for that will be difficult," Aliyev added.

Regarding talks with the representatives of Armenians living in Karabakh, Aliyev stated, "We took the initiative, I appointed a special representative who was supposed to deal with representatives of the Armenians of Karabakh and to establish these contacts, he was sent to Karabakh. The first meeting took place there, in the village of Khojaly, at the base of the Russian peacekeeping contingent. After that, we invited representatives of the Armenians of Karabakh to come to Baku to continue the dialogue. But they refused, and quite defiantly. After some time, we invited them again – perhaps there was some kind of a mistake, it happens, a misfire – to find out whether they want it or not. But there was a refusal again. And then I said that there would be no third invitation. If they are not interested, so be it." He also talked about the recent sit-in protests in Karabakh: "And today’s comedy show they are staging when they sit in a tent and protest against someone. It is just a joke, you know. People who call themselves "president" protest, do a sit-in strike – we have some journalists joking that the next stage will probably be a lying down strike. Whatever it is, it won’t help the case. We are ready to follow the path of reintegration, respecting the rights and security of the Armenian minority in Karabakh within the framework of our Constitution and within the framework of the good practice of how these issues are resolved in Azerbaijan as a whole."

To the question of whether he uses social media or not, Aliyev said, "At the same time, the scope of activity is so huge that sometimes you miss some important points so that you can miss the feeling of the pulse of society. This is very important for me to feel this pulse. I feel it when I travel, when I meet people when I also use social media, and many things that happened in Azerbaijan were not reported to me, either due to some bureaucratic procedure or now less deliberately, but still, maybe because of me being too busy with some other issues. I find out also through my grandchildren sometimes, and children from social media, and sometimes myself. It helps a lot. Because there are many things, which irritate me, as well as anyone in Azerbaijan."