BAKU: Bahar Muradova: Bernard Fassier Said At The OSCE PA That Armen

BAHAR MURADOVA: BERNARD FASSIER SAID AT THE OSCE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY THAT ARMENIA WANTS TO GAIN TIME THROUGH PROTRACTING THE SOLUTION OF THE CONFLICT

Milaz.info , Azerbaijan
Oct 14 2011

“The discussions on Nagorno Karabakh conflict, which were held during
the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s session in Croatia last week,
were the results of the numerous initiatives of Azerbaijan.

The proposal was serious, the discussions were held as a result of
the efforts of João Soares and Petros Efthymiou,” vice-speaker of
Azerbaijani parliament, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) Bahar Muradova said at the press
conference, APA reports.

Bahar Muradova said OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs also attended the
meeting. Though it had been said that one of the co-chairs would miss
the meeting, all the three co-chairs and personal representative of
OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk attended the discussions.

Vice-speaker said French co-chair Bernard Fassier made a speech first,
his speech was constructive with some exceptions.

“Fassier’s speech can be considered constructive. He said Nagorno
Karabakh is the territory of Azerbaijan. Nagorno Karabakh, including
the seven adjacent regions has been occupied by Armenia. There are
one million refugees. Though there are several variants concerning
the resolution of the conflict, the sides do not agree to it. The
Azerbaijani side does not support people’s right to self-determination,
the Armenian side wants to gain time through protracting the solution
of the conflict. On the eve of the adoption of the resolution, the
Armenian side rejected it. US co-chair Robert Bradtke gave information
about the Madrid principles, Russian co-chair Igor Popov about the
extra activity of Russia as a co-chairing country. Andrzej Kasprzyk’s
complaint about the number of the staff members in his office caused
discontent of the parliamentarians.

Kasprzyk said 20 were killed, 36 wounded from both sides in the past
nine years,” she said.

Muradova said Azerbaijani delegation demonstrated constructive position
during the discussions and speech of the head of delegation was
accepted positively. Azerbaijani side accepted the Madrid principles,
supports the peaceful solution to the conflict and is ready to build
confidence between the sides.

Vice speaker said that Armenian representatives made non-constructive
speeches, which caused protests by the European parliamentarians. “We
didn’t see any constructiveness in the Armenian position. They
accused Azerbaijan of breaking the results of Kazan meeting. They
claimed that Azerbaijan didn’t withdraw snipers from the frontline. We
said Azerbaijani side didn’t want incidents in the frontline and was
investigating the causes. We are ready even to withdraw our troops from
the frontline. For that Armenian must leave the occupied territories
of Azerbaijan and withdraw troops from there”.

Muradova added that on the opening day of the session, she met with
the representatives of 25 countries and invited them to attend the
hearings. 19 of them delivered speeches and most of them supported
the solution to the conflict on the basis of the UN and European
Parliament’s decisions. Representatives of Ukraine, Belgium, Belarus,
Serbia, the Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey and other countries stated
that they see the solution to the conflict only within the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan. Their ideas will be described in the OSCE
PA’s winter session report.

Other members of the Azerbaijani delegation to the OSCE PA – Eldar
Ibrahimov, Aghalar Veliyev and Rabiyyat Aslanova also participated
in the press conference.