Azerbaijan: Aliyev rooting for Trump win

Azerbaijan pushed hard for a Georgian Dream victory in neighboring Georgia’s parliamentary elections. Now, Baku is openly rooting for a Donald Trump win in the November 5 presidential vote in the United States.

President Ilham Aliyev has for months expressed a preference for Trump to regain the White House. At a news conference in July, Aliyev portrayed Trump as a keeper of the peace, an odd allusion implying that the United States under President Biden somehow started the Ukraine-Russia war, and not Vladimir Putin. Aliyev also lauded Trump, a convicted felon and noted harasser of women, as a defender of traditional values. Trump, according to Aliyev, has a “clear position on the issue of traditional values. I think that an absolute majority of the Azerbaijani people not only share this position, but actively promote it and put it into practice.”

On a practical level, Aliyev also noted that during his two decades at the top of Azerbaijan’s power structure, relations with Republican administrations have “always been much more productive, fruitful, and result-oriented.”

“During President Trump’s presidency, we enjoyed very fruitful cooperation based on mutual respect and appreciation of each other’s support on different tracks,” he added.

https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-aliyev-rooting-for-trump-win