Jon Bory’s Analysis of Slovakia’s Economic Advancements and Israel’s Role in the Middle East

 Published June 7, 2015

Slovakia is a country which has gained a spectacular position in Europe following its appropriate economic reforms and near-zero inflation. The country’s peaceful approach toward others and its open doors toward financial opportunities inspired us to hold an interview with Slovakia’s ambassador to Tehran. Ján Bóry is a seasoned diplomat who has a fine grip over the developments of the Middle East. In our interview, we delved into the roles of intelligence services in the ISIS raising to power and also the foundation of turmoil in Iraq as well as the approach of Israel toward the foresaid. His interest in Palestinian fighters motivated him to learn Arabic, and after all these years, he still supports the people of Palestine in a way that he stood in front of our camera with a keffiyeh on his neck.

AVA Diplomatic’s Exclusive Interview with Ján Bóry, Slovakia’s Ambassador to Iran

We know that you do not interview from time to time .Thank you for accepting this interview request. Let’s talk about the formation of Slovakia. What factors caused peaceful dissolution between Slovakia and Czech?

Czechoslovakia was an artificially created country which was the result of the First World War. In that period of time, it was better for Czech and Slovakia to live together as one country and have a bigger population. Czechoslovakia started its existence from 28 October, 1918 and finished it on 1 January, 1993 as a result of a process which evolved from the so-called velvet revolution which ended the power of Communist party into which the unitary state was divided. We are proud to say that not only divorce but also the revolution, both of them were velvet, which means it went without violence and bloodshed. The main reason of this divorce between the two countries was that in the co-existence time there was a doubt that who is making more profit and who is paying more for the common state. When the situation started to be gradually and potentially risky, the new political parties of the country decided it is better for the two nations to live separately on their own but support each other and be very close after the division. I can say it was a wise decision. I will just mention post Soviet Union development in some countries was very problematic and dramatic; as today in Ukraine and once in more Balkan countries. Generally, I can say the division was beneficial for the two countries from many aspects and helped both Slovakia and Czech Republic to develop fast by their own. I am happy to say the speed of recovery and social development in Slovakia was so fast. We have euro and the Czech Republic still have their currency. We have inflation almost zero. Some months ago it was half a percent. There for once again I can say behind the velvet divorce, it was not the matter of territory claim or enmity for the people.

Revolutions are always associated with outburst and riot. The point is that, how the velvet revolution occurred peacefully?

We would like to be professor of the world but actually it cannot work. The situation should be every time unique and individual. We are proud to say our people were wise to listen to the more responsible politicians than others. In every country there are some people who say take arms, defend yourself and fight against the enemy. When people do not follow the, you can control them better. Some opponents of the velvet revolution and especially velvet divorce used to say the people were not allowed to directly say we want divorce because we did not organize a referendum. The majority of the political parties agreed that the campaign for referendum may result in some limits or violence because some small radical and ultranationalist groups can provoke each other. So they agreed on a peaceful separation.

Each revolution is mostly followed by a period of economic depression. How did such a common trend turn into a leap forward in Slovakia?

We have to say that in the beginning of independence our economic and social status went sharply down. As a result of that, there was a big crisis. Decrease of GDP, unemployment, rise of the prices and many other negative factors. The only way how to go out was to mobilize strong forces and to take strict economic measures. We did it. We took much stricter measures that today Greece and Italy are taking. Therefore we are not very happy to say what until now happened in Greece, Cyprus and some other countries in Europe zone is not enough to solve all their problems. There should be more far-reached economic changes, yes, painful, but not avoidable. In 2001, 2002 we decided to attract very huge foreign investors. By coming to Slovakia they brought new technology, new branches of industry, new services and job opportunities to there. In that period we had very fast growing; 10 percent annually which is very unique for European countries. So in that period we moved up. In 2004 we succeeded to join EU and in 2009 we even joined euro zone by changing our currency. Joining both EU and euro zone helped our economy as well because we were a small country with 5.4 million population and limited market. We are the most liberal country in the world from economic point of view because GDP is created by the foreign trade by almost 98 percent. We need to have good relations with majority of the countries because we are a raw material importer country. Then we are processing, producing and exporting ready made products and export them to the world market. We would like to increase our export and make a better balance in our export between the developing countries and the developed countries.

How did you bring the inflation increase under control?

The most important factor to control inflation is to try to keep it healthy. It is not easy to say what healthy inflation is because it depends on many economic features. I mean increase of production, increase of export etc. Generally; we believe that small, one digit inflation is a natural. Maybe 4 to 6 % is good in the era of high GDP rise. Till the end of 90s we had almost no GDP rise. We had decrease but after 2000 it started growing. Because our system and law allowed a hundred percent profit to go freely outside, which we don’t see even in some western countries, big investors came to Slovakia. Another factor to help with the inflation was changing our currency. When I speak about the 0 % inflation, it is the first time happening in the existence of Slovakia. Our inflation rate and GDP is still one of the best in Europe end especially in euro zone. Having 0 % inflation was not easy as we experienced the second wave of economic crisis. We have felt also some other problems namely as the result of the situation in our neighboring country, Ukraine.

It seems that an intelligent brain is leading the economic system of Slovakia.

It was difficult to keep the country a republic because people had little income. It means there was more profit for the private sector. When we were joining EU in 2004, three years after the economic growth started, average resident of Slovakia used to receive about 400 euros per month. For retired people it was about 260 euros. We were not happy as we are today. Today, an average Slovak receives about 900 euros per month and retirement payment is about 450 euros. In comparison with rich countries it is still very little but I am afraid to say maybe we were one of the last successful countries in the EU. Those countries which later on joined EU maybe were not be so successful to develop so much. I am happy to say in spite of all difficulties in the years behind us, majority of Slovaks never opted for stop of going to work for strikes. Of course we did have some problems in this case but they were very minor in comparison with Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Greece, Germany and other countries. It is mostly due to the character of Slovaks who prefer to work harder than to stop working, especially in difficult situations. Any huge strike is bad for general economy and good for some minor groups. If a country for example has 100 euros for the population, it cannot give them more. In this situation if someone gets more, others will go on a strike. It means, few days no production, no export and no income. So the country goes down, down and down because instead of paying money they have to borrow it. We decided that this we don’t like to happen with us. If you look, today Slovak people are the most pro-EU because they are directly united in this development that resulted in average salary growth from 450 to today′s 900 euros. It is not a bad result for last around ten years. From this perspective we can hope that the salaries may get double within another 10 years. When we joined EU our GDP in comparison with EU averages was 46 percent while now it is 78 percent. It means maybe within another 10 years we can reach 100 percent. I think what Slovakia has done yet is a big success.

You talked about the economic development of Slovakia. Considering the dispute between Russia and the U.S and the West and the sanctions being imposed on Russia, how much has this trend affected Slovakia’s economy?

Let me start answering your question from the end. Slovakia does not believe that the frequently used sanction system is enough of an effective tool in international diplomacy but unfortunately it still exists. We prefer and believe dialogue is a better way to solve the problems. At the same time, we sometimes have to opt for the sanctions. We are not happy to see that the sanctions are increasingly being imposed. In the 90s when we looked at different sanction systems, I came to the conclusion that it is never hitting the guilty people or politicians. It is mostly heating common people. From that point of view, I can say the system of sanctions are not justice. Later on the modern system of sanctions was created but In general I do not believe in sanctions. Just a couple of weeks ago in an interview with a leading western daily, our prime minister, Robert Fico, expressed his willingness that the European Union showed some flexibility to lessen sanctions on Russia and giving space to them to cooperatively solve the problem of Ukraine. We have some opponents in political parties in our country which are asking for more strict new sanctions. We as a member of NATO and EU have to abide the decisions. Not only Slovakia but also Hungarian prime minister, Czech president, Austrian politicians and from time to time German foreign minister and others are also having similar position. There are also as I have said more politicians asking for more strict sanctions on Russia. Generally we are more afraid of the negative results of the sanctions. We are very concerned about automobile industry because Russia market is the third or the forth for exporting our ready made cars. Since 6 or 7 years ago we are the biggest per capita car producer in the world. It is about 1 million cars annually and around 99 percent of them are for export. Number one for car export is Germany, second is China, third and fourth are between the U.S and Russia. Some of our industrial companies who used to export to Russia suffered from sanctions. I have even heard that one of them closed. Perhaps the number of companies that colapsed is more but I have no got any such a information yet. The result of GDP growth shows that more or less we succeeded even in the sanction time but we do not like this way which is making the situation more difficult and complicated in certain areas. If someone is trying to accuse Russia more than Ukraine, that is not also true. It is sometimes the Ukrainians that only want unilateral support from them. We are the country who opened gas to Ukraine. There is some information that Hungary has not sent for seven months even one cube meter of gas to Ukraine. We are ready to increase it. We prefer a stable Ukraine because we have common borders. If some problems happen to the refugees, we are directly hit. And we know from Libya, Syria, Iraq and other countries that once these problems start you cannot see the end. There will be a lot of financial problems, there will be many people killed and injured and nobody knows when and how the recovery to come. About Russia, we and our EU allies proposed to make a partner relationship with Russia but some countries are trying to make enemy from Russia. We are against of making Russia an enemy because we and the EU need to make a good relationship with Russia.

As an EU member, Slovakia has to abide by the laws made by EU. Your sayings gave us such insight that Slovakia accepts this fact but does not obey it.

No. it is incorrect to say that. In European Union when everybody agrees on something so everybody has to abide it. Sometimes EU does not make such a decision. In that case only countries which have to obey are that who agreed on it. For instance, Slovakia agreed to participate in the first general assistance to Greece but when the second level came Slovakia refused to participate. Even I can quote our prime minister that said that we will not give any more money to Greece. The Greece should take responsibility of its situation. They should start to work with the reality. Greece still pay about 1400, 1500 euros salary. Their retirement pension is about 900, 1000 euros. So they can make enough money. The same story is true about Ukraine. We do not believe that giving them money would help reach the solution. Ukraine should first stop war. Any ceasefire is better for them because it avoids the country from further destruction and killing. Second they should mainly concentrate on their economy. To make drastic economic reform, they should take serious measures. The figures show that the present government is not doing very differently in comparison with the previous government yet. They are not doing anything for change. And the ordinary people are paying the price. We are ready to assist them immediately whenever the situation gets better. Remember, Slovakia did not receive any assistance from Greece, Ukraine or any other countries. Sometimes they were looking how the Slovaks are going down. Everybody is first looking for his profit and then for the profit of others. We stood on our feet and helped ourselves. When you are weak, you are not a partner. Generally by this way, we are looking at many situations in the world.

Slovakia imports gas from Russia and then, after preserving it, sends it to Ukraine. Given the fact that the pipeline crosses through Ukraine, doesn’t it provoke Russia?

It looks like it but it is not the case at all. In the beginning, the system was not working because the flow of the gas was only for one direction. A couple of years ago the problem occurred between Russia and Ukraine because Ukraine did not pay the debts to Russia. So Russia stopped transporting its gas and we had to overpass the possible crisis. We took a lesson from that. It was about 4, 5 years ago. Since then we tried to take some technical measures and make some particular decisions to lessen the effects of possible similar crisis in future. Meanwhile, we reversed flow from Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. It is not to fully cover our needs but in case of stoppage, from that time we could have the Norwegian gas or importing it from the Middle East or from Nigeria to Europe. A couple of months ago the pipe line from Croatia to Hungary was also equipped with the reverse technology. Now we need another 150 kilometers to Slovakia as an alternative. In the beginning some politician decided it is okay we have got gas from Russia, Our storage is full and we can serve the Russian gas for Slovakia. Russia did not protest and said the gas is yours. Than we sold it to existed buyer.

Russia attempts to pressure Ukraine both politically and economically, and on the other hand, Slovakia, who is Russia’s economic partner, tries to help Ukraine out of the energy crisis. Slovakia is providing services for both sides of this conflict, in fact.

Maybe you see it this way but we have to say our legislation and position of policy making is next to the join policy making and legislation of European Union. Therefore we cannot do something which is not approved by the EU. Definitely we are partner of Russia as well as Germany and others in bringing gas from Russia. Our dependence is higher because we import gas from Russia up to 100 percent. It is said that the producers of gas are winner but the fact is that the consumer countries are stronger than producer countries. I am speaking about the all embargo in 70s by Arab countries which failed to be as their global arm. We believe there is equal dependence between the producers and the consumers because producers need to export and the consumers need to import. We think that mutual interest should be found to appeal both sides. As I mentioned before we are against using this isolation. Recently in Europe and even in the global scene, there is a tendency to understand that the global threat is energy. Therefore in Europe, for several years we are discussing energy security policy. For it even a conference was established. We participated in the international conference about energy last September in Tehran. A Slovak diplomat visited Tehran then. We believe that energy problem is the same or more important than food or mass destruction weapons problem. And in this problem, we do not see we are with Ukraine against Russia or vice versa. We are supporting both Russia and Ukraine to sit and solve their problem so that they both can fulfill their realistic expectations. It happened when Russia was accused of not providing gas for Ukraine but the statistics showed that Ukraine did not pay to Russia. It is clear that when it is signed in a contract that you should pay, you should pay. Ukraine is against the increase of price. We support the acceptable price. Of course it is up to their negotiations because you cannot force them to agree on something. Sometimes it depends on quality and sometimes it relies on quantity rate. You cannot tell them give gas to Ukraine by Slovakia price. When in a contract you sign to buy an amount of something then later on you should on escape it. Then the producer does not know what to do with the rest. Sometimes the countries promise to buy a quantity of something but then they do not take it. The best way in this case is somehow to modify the policy and to provide storage facility. There was a contract until 2023 or 2028 but it was never mentioned it the world media. It was revealed when a couple of weeks ago president Putin went to Budapest to negotiate and sign a similar contract for some 15 years.

Slovakia has adopted almost the same complicated policy towards NATO. It has singed many agreements ant treaties with NATO, but in reality, the Slovak PM does allow NATO forces to be deployed and stay in Slovakia. Why does Slovakia employ such an approach?

It is differently. We are member of NATO and we think we are a good member of NATO but we do not think that moving more NATO forces to the line of confrontation between Ukraine and Russia is helpful for solution. We don’t believe exporting arms to Ukraine will bring the peace; we think it is the opposite. We do not want to provoke Russia by doing wrong moves. In the past months, delegations and even military personnel from USA, Canada, England, Germany, Holland, Poland and Czech Republic visited Slovakia and participated in some exercises. We do not believe having more bases would bring peace. What we are doing helps more to cool down the situation. We prefer political solution.

One of the issues that is threatening the security of Europe is the presence of the radical forces like the ISIS there. Does Slovakia consider it a threat to its national security?

Since the beginning of my career, I am dealing with the Arab world and the Middle East. I have been in Iran, inside the Middle East, for the last three years. I do not want to say that I have seen all of the problems but I think that phenomenon of terrorism in general or radical Islamic terrorism is not properly addressed yet. In spite of all positive words, all of the actions are coming late, even not all of them are constructive… First, I would like to say that perhaps finally some of the politicians in the west started to understand that the problems do not have religious roots; it is more or less social backed. And I see it as a great social problem. Even before war in Iraq and Afghanistan these problems had existed. When you have huge number of people depressed of limitations, without chances for, improving their lives, lack of facility and job opportunities, it is the fertile soil for beginning of terrorism problem. Misunderstandings about going directly to heaven by killing bad people will be spread. Unfortunately many of the terrorist groups are in the Middle East. If not for a long time but at least in the beginning, they were supported even by some western countries – western intelligent services, Israel and others. Only after they grew, they went out of their control, For example, Taliban in Afghanistan. I do not know how to take it serious or not but lately there were news implying that the American forces are attacking ISIL or some ISIL connected groups and at the same time they are providing some training and assistance for them and/or similar to them. Who is buying this oil from ISIL? Not Slovakia. Who is controlling the oil market? Who allows Turkey to buy it?! Turkey is an ally of the U.S in the region. The second part of the problem is that we do not have international agreement by UN or other universal bodies. What is the phenomenon of terrorism?! The U.S position is that whatever Israel does is not terrorism but if others do then that is terrorism. Israel has signed some conventions about how to treat territory and population of Occupied Territory but he is violating them. Is it still terrorism or not?! U.S.A says no, it is not. I can say it is. I do not agree that only enemies of the U.S like Omar al Bashir in Sudan and Bashar al-Assad in Syria are terrorists because they do not like them. Yesterday they liked them but today they do not. Tomorrow they will like somebody else. You can find a lot of example of these kinds of actions. They mistreated people in Guantanamo, in Bagram Prison and other places. They had secret flies and even prisons in some European countries like Romania, Poland and others. Generally, I do not believe that there is war, real and complex war against ISIL or any other terrorist groups.

You were in charge of the Department for Arabic, African and Asia Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and of Slovakia. You also served for many years in Yemen, Sudan, Egypt, Libya and visited many other Arab countries. The investigation of political developments in Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania were technical parts of your career. You are also fluent in Arabic. As an expert of the Middle-Eastern affairs, where do you see the origin of such extremism coming from in the region?

In any difficult areas you can have some radical groups. Of course it also depends on its place. When the life of the people in a country is not generally going peacefully and normally, there will be some radicals who would like to misuse the situation. In my experience, the radicals are used as a potential force for the superpowers. Still certain countries and certain intelligence services are assisting, training and financially supporting them. The typical example of this is Taliban. About the ISIS, we should note that it is financed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and military training is provided by CIA. In many countries it is the same. I do not believe in genocide story in Darfur and Kordofan as it was effected by major world media coverage. It was a regular repeated problem between the nomadic and settled inhabitants who never knew even who from the fighting groups were Arab or not, or were they Muslim or not. Some of the tribes there are Muslim and some are not but they look like everybody the same and speak the same languages. Every few years when in harvest season lack of water and drought badly effects first the nomads the nomadic tribes starts to attacked the crops and fields and livestock of the settled farmers and subsequently the conflict starts. The chiefs of the tribes later used to decide that you killed several of our members; you took some of our girls from village, you stole all of our crops, you did this and that and now you have to pay back… And for next years the peace was once again restored by traditional solution from inside, not imposed from outside…

The external forces feel that Sudan is getting well after the pressure of the U.S in the 80s and 90s of the past century. They started to operate more and more with China. It was followed by the change of diplomatic relations between Chad and Taiwan in 2004 and from then on with China. When USA reduced their presence in Africa, suddenly they discovered that the economic assistance of China is growing more and more there. Because of the strategic raw material, it is a very sensitive area there. So the USA started to provoke problems, conflicts and even wars; it is my, but not only mine, personal perception. They helped to create genocide in Darfur. Who provide sophisticated arms for to arm tribes in Darfur?! They had historically limited light arms but not the heavy ones. And suddenly they used the kind of arms that never were present there. Where do the arms come from? From which sources; not from or with assistance of Israel and the United States. It is good for Israel because any problem in any Arab country is good for them and the U.S because they want to stop progress forward and keep control gained in past. From my information not officially, a failed operation in Somali by U.S in the early 90s was trial how to occupy the Sudan but Sudan is a much bigger cake. They could not do it because they failed even in a much smaller and simple Somali. Therefor they decided first to divide Sudan and they succeeded to do so. What I want to say is that in many different international conflicts I see very negative external roles. Without external role it seems that the situation is controllable and easier to normalize.

One of the biggest arms exporters to conflicts in Africa is France but you did not refer to it.

Generally No. 1 is the USA, but you can add to France, the United Kingdom, you can continue with Germany, Holland, Belgium etc.

Why did the main Baath body create the now ISIS after the demise of Saddam Hussain in Iraq? Is full infiltration of the ISIS possible in Iraq?

From 2001 to 2006 I was ambassador to Tripoli but after the fall of Saddam Hussein we did not have temporary diplomats in Iraq because our embassy was destroyed and we wanted to send back diplomats. The government proposed me if I can on a limited time mission represent Slovakia in post-war Iraq. I was ambassador at large for some time. Actually almost for six months I left Tripoli to Baghdad and Kuwait from June to October. Fall of Saddam Hussein happened in May, in early June I was there. I was the representative of Slovakia in Iraq. I prepared the return of diplomats in July 17 and in beginning of August our military forces were deployed a Charlie Camp. With their assistance as well as under Polish and US military coverage I distributed Slovak humanitarian assistance to 5 provinces in central Iraq.

The U.S is a very specific country. In spite of claiming they are learning lessons, they are so far never doing it. Before starting the war in Iraq some countries and many more individual personalities warned them not to repeat the same mistake as you made in other countries. They made mistakes by setting out two principals; no soldier from Saddam army will be in new Iraqi army. Nobody from Ba’ath Party will be working in the state service. In that and similar ton it country everyone who was educated and wanted to work as a teacher, as an engineer and so on has to be in Ba’ath Party. It was not that he believed in it, it was entry ticket to the job. It was a condition indeed. Some of them believed in Ba’ath but majority of them did not. There was no other way. The same was true in military. It means they put out about half a million soldiers or maybe more. Plus wives and kids suddenly about 5 million people had no income to live. The same situation happened to Ba’ath Party. It means 60 to 70 percent of the Iraqis had nothing to live. Once I was in a province of Iraq; I am not sure whether it was the province Al Anbar or not, the governor told me they do not have any facility, even no petrol in its soil. So the young people had to come to enroll into the police and army to have income but then Americans expelled them. As a result the unemployment reached about 90 percent. Kids want something to eat, Wives were crying, because they do not have money to buy and do something. They did not intend to attack any Americans but they needed money. They joined stupid criminal ISIL and money started to come. Today they are fighting in ISISL for the money. You can see different groups of people in ISIL. They had to provide some food and money for their families. They do not want to see them dying. If you can’t make a living in peaceful way then you have to do it in violent way. Only few people in the world I saw dying peacefully. In the 80s there was a drought in Sudan. Many Sudanese tribes had to take their wives jewelry to exchange with what their needed. They gave their gold to the cynic businessmen and died a few days later. Can you imagine Iraqi before Iran-Iraq war? It was more developed. The GDP was much better. They had more material and cultural income than Spain, Italy and Greece in 80s but suddenly they went to the level of the worst countries with almost no income. So I want to say it had economic and social reasons that they joined ISIL. Recently we have heard that some Muslims from Europe, some converted Muslims and some neo fascists joined them. They are the three major groups fighting in Syria, Libya, Ukraine and Iraq.

How do you find the role of Iran in fighting with the ISIS in Iraq?

I believe Iran can play an important role in the region. Unfortunately global political power forces don’t want to give chance to situation to be stabilized because a part of success to stabilization will be attributed to Iran. Slovakia also believes that stabilized Afghanistan would not be possible without Iran. I am accredited ambassador to Afghanistan and Pakistan. I have learned from practice something; it means Iranian assistance is tremendous. In the fields of education and health the situation would get much worse without Iran’s supports. Perhaps our capacity in this case is not as big as yours but if we put our capacities together we can help more and better. For further collaboration between Iran and Slovakia, we need the agreement between P5+1 and Iran to unblock this situation and have better quality relations. Unfortunately it does not happened until now. For instance, when anti-ISIL campaign was created, they wanted to block Iran to participate. But Iran was honored to be the first to assist in field fighting on side of Iraqi government forces, was the first country to assist Kurdish Peshmenge. Today the military option is maybe necessary because many innocent people are very brutally being killed. We should know that military option is not enough to solve the conflict. Next to the war there should be need for job opportunities, developments, and good facilities for people and so on. I think there the beginning of the way towards solution to the problem.

How have been the cultural and scientific developments between Iran and Slovakia over the recent years?

According to our prime minister, in the last two years the two countries succeeded to reach a good level of political relations. Slovak various officials and the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs managed to visit Tehran. Now we are expecting Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to visit Bratislava. We ready to have the visit of Dr. Ali Tayebnia to Bratislava. We are also expecting Minister of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic to come to Iran. During these visits we expect to finalize and sign some agreements. Maybe even some cultural delegations on the level of deputy minister come here to discuss an increase in the number of Iranian students, first in faculty of medicine and then maybe to some other faculties. We wish to boost cultural cooperation step by step. The number of tourists between the two countries is growing. It can help the people-to-people diplomacy. Regularly every few months we host some musicians from Slovakia, last time in April 2015. According to an agreement between Slovak and Iranian officials a university professor in Bratislava is teaching Farsi and Iran’s history and culture. It means some people in Slovakia will be able to speak Farsi and they have chance to study Iranian history and culture. If you look at the size of our country, I can say for sure we cannot compete with big countries but in people-to-people level I am sure that many Iranians who recently visited Slovakia will come back and will have better experience. You know, I am proud to say that Slovakia has never attacked anybody. In contrast with some other countries we have never had colonies. Our country is safe and secure.

You referred to people-to-people diplomacy. It only comes true when a lot of Slovak and Iranian tourists travel through the two countries. Do you have any account of the tourist trade between the two countries?

We are happy that we succeeded to enjoy good relations with Iranian authorities. We appreciate their understanding. The both sides decided that the recent consular story did not have negative influence on our general relationship. I do not have an exact figure about the number of visitors from Iran to Slovakia. Because we are in Schengen system we can only count the number of tourists who come to Slovakia by plane. The point is that majority of the people who travel to Slovakia first fly to Vienna because from Vienna Airport it is only 45 kilometers to our capital. It is 20 minutes by bus. There are some tourist agencies who are working with Slovakia for the last two or three years but they have their groups to visit more than one country. For example, they combine 3 days Hungary, 3 days Austria, 2 days Slovakia, 3 days Italy or Germany and like this. There exists a rule in Schengen system saying that the first country you visit is to register entry to Schengen Area and we are almost never the first but I can inform you that three years ago we issued around 200 visas, two years ago we issued 480 and last year this number was 860. We can issue much more but we do not enough staff and equipment. Therefore in December I requested an additional equipment for visas section so soon we can increase input of information about visas applicants in the same time. Besides it unfortunately we have even staff problems. We do not have full-fledged consul. We are only two diplomats here; I and my deputy who has to take other responsibilities as well. Additionally, we are covering Pakistan and Afghanistan too. When we compare our country with a similar foreign countries, I can tell you that they have 5 to 10 times diplomats these three countries. It means physically we have limits in issuing more visas. The consulate is not open every day because the consul should also take care of other tasks. And sometimes we should visit Pakistan and Afghanistan because we are accredited to there. We have many problems there. For example, sometimes our militants are shot in Afghanistan and we have to deal with this case as well. I am hardly trying to get one more diplomat so that we make have the consulate working separately. I can imagine that we easily can reach issuing 2000 visas. In that level we will be on the same level as some similar to us EU countries. As far as I know Ata Airlines is to trying to get license for flight between Tehran and Bratislava but it is up to them with whom they are dealing. I advised them not to take this partner but they trusted them. Later on they asked me to advise them another partner because they could not keep up their cooperation. I did it for them but from my point of view they are not active enough. If the direct flights between the two capitals become possible, for sure the number of visitors will increase. Last year in June the director of the biggest Iranian tour and travel agency, Persepolis, went to Slovakia to sign an agreement with SATUR Travel which is our big sector company. In that protocol they agreed to bring about 500 Slovak tourists from July to December, 2014. In principle I can tell you over one thousand tourists visited Iran. You should remember that our population is about five million, the income is limited and not everybody can afford far travel but I can tell you the potentials are growing. Let me tell you something, if you consider the size and the population of the country and then compare the number of visitors, you can say for instance, Slovaks travel more than some of our neighbors.

How much optimistic are you to see Slovak car manufacturers in Iran?

We have to distinguish between the big international companies in Slovakia and the local ones producing for the car components and spare parts. Some of the international brands have decided to produce in Slovakia. They have their own multinational policies for exportation. We cannot have influence on them because it is up to the company. An example of this kind is Volkswagen. Not considering these companies there are about 500 hundred medium-sized and small Slovak companies who provide components and parts for other companies such as Volkswagen, Mercedes etc. In the beginning these companies had some drawbacks like quality problem but now they have good facilities to compete with big companies. Now they are ready to export to Iran because they know that Iran is not a major producer and also it is facing with quality problem. They would like to first send some components here to increase quality and then if the situation was prepared, they can start a joint venture production here.

Has Slovakia started to send some delegations to Iran for discussing and running cooperation? Like what the French did last year.

There are some Slovak business groups who would like to come to Iran with high technology. Last year in June, Tehran Chamber of Commerce sent around 55 Iranian businessmen in mining field to Bratislava. Slovak officials are preparing for the second half of May a large group of Slovak businessmen to pay reciprocal visit to Iran. We have a laser drilling company that would like to find partner in Iran. There is another Slovak company, working in the field of agriculture, which uses the best raw material for making liquid fertilizer. They also like to find partners in Iran but they are very much afraid of starting to work and then somebody steals the technology to China or any other country. They need governmental guarantees to provide the raw material for them and fair distribution of the final product. Then they can start to invest here. The quality of this liquid fertilizer is not comparable to the artificial ones. We have also more high technologies like for agriculture or forestation which you can use to stop sand storm from Iraq. With a belt of forest you can control the aggressiveness of the sand storms. Today Slovakia has considerable innovative technologies in some areas like the first flying car which was created in Slovakia.

At the end of the interview, a keffiyeh caught my attention which is on the back of your seat. Do you use that yourself?

Here is my seat close to window and some time it gets windy. Therefore I use it because it helps me feel better. It is a kind of scarf which is very common and practical. It can be used for different cases. I have different kinds of them from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya etc. I have many of them but this I bought here in Iran. When I was young, I was fan of Palestinian fighters for their self-declaration. So I decided to study Arabic language and to specialize on the Arab world. Unfortunately Palestine is not free yet.

Have you ever been to Gaza or Ramallah?

Not exactly in there but I have been to the West Bank. I was also in Israel and occupied territories. And I have been to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. When I was there in Israel or Occupied Palestine I could see depression in the eyes of oppressed Arabs; even the rich ones do not know if they travel, they will come back home tomorrow. It is very tragic situation there. If you see the Jewish how they are enjoying their freedom in Iran, you can understand why they do not want to immigrate. This is the difference. How Israel is to be democratic state. It cannot really be democratic; there is not a constitution and you can see discrimination towards their own citizens. I am not speaking about what they are doing to Palestinians in occupaid territories; that is a crime. I am telling you about the discrimination toward non-Jewish residents in Israel. Arabs with Israeli passport cannot serve the army. Maybe it seems to be good but when you are not allowed to accept some other careers, and then it is not. They have two official languages; Hebrew and Arabic, but when you speak Arabic you become a suspect.

Interview by Mohammadreza Nazari