Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – December 5, 1993

To participate in the celebration of Mother's Day in Women's Week, we went to Azadi Stadium with Efat. Before the start of the program, in the adjacent room, Mr. Ajaibi, Deputy Minister of Labor, introduced exemplary female workers. I gave their prizes and greeted everyone. In the hall of twelve thousand people, there was a magnificent gathering of women; Most of them were Basij and workers' culture. They had good passion and feelings. They clapped regularly. They sometimes whistled and had few salutations and slogans.

After the anthem and the welcome and the report by Mrs. [Shehla] Habibi, [Head of the Presidential Women's Affairs Office], I gave a speech and a visual presentation with human truths, which is probably very interesting for them, but they also have limitations.

I went to my office. [Mr. Awad Ovich], the new ambassador of Turkmenistan came to present his credentials. Then [Mr. Boris Sheikh Muradov], the vice president of Turkmenistan, came and brought Mr. Niyazov's letter, which informed that the meeting [determining the legal regime of the Caspian Sea] was postponed at the request of Russia and the issue of Turkmenistan's borders will not be raised at the summit of the Commonwealth of Nations. He had announced that he would come to Iran soon.

Then [Mr. Rasul Qoliof], Speaker of Azerbaijan Parliament, who is the Vice President, came with Mr. Hasan Of, their Minister of Foreign Affairs. They informed that their policy is to take back a large part of Azerbaijan's territory from the Armenians in the future and then negotiate for peace from a position of power and accept that Karabakh will be in their hands. They asked us for help with weapons, roads, propaganda, political and information work.

In the evening, I did an interview for the opening of the third channel [Sima]. In the government, we started discussing the 1973 budget. I was the guest of the leader. We negotiated about the program and budget, currency, oil and Azerbaijan. Mr. Aghazadeh, [Oil Minister], informed that he had a telephone conversation with the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait regarding OPEC's action to correct oil prices; They are supposed to answer later. Mr. Mahluji, [Minister of Mines and Metals], got permission to go to Turkmenistan for a contract to sell stone and establish a stone factory.