Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova had a meeting on 18 July with the visiting Vice President of the Bundestag Katrin Göring-Eckardt and the delegation led by her.

As she welcomed the guests, Mrs Gafarova told them that their visit was bound to help deepen and broaden our friendly ties further, that the bilateral diplomatic relations had been established thirty years ago and that reciprocal high-status visits and conversations held during them were immensely important for the progress of the Azerbaijani-German connexions.

The roles of the parliaments in the system of inter-state relationship was emphasised then and the work done by both legislatures’ friendship groups was referenced with praise. Mrs Gafarova also underlined the weight of our co-operation under the roofs of international organisations.

Azerbaijan had freed her lands after the three decades for which they had been captured by Armenia; that had happened consequent to the Patriotic War of 2020, Mrs Gafarova continued. Had the global community paid the fact of the occupation of the Azerbaijani lands due attention, though, the former conflict would have been resolved sooner and without losses, according to the speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament.

Armenia had destroyed all the towns and villages in the then-captured lands, had vandalised our heritage, historical artefacts and temples on purpose during the period of occupation. Until today, the Armenian side have not released information about the fate of those four thousand Azerbaijanis recorded missing since the times of the Garabagh War I. Azerbaijan had started large-scale restoration and revival of her liberated lands once the captivity had been done away with; for instance, the whole infrastructure of those parts is being built anew. Then again, all those efforts and the much-desired speedy return of the former refugees to their native lands are greatly impeded by the fact that Armenia had mined those provinces.

Azerbaijan continues her efforts towards lasting peace and stability in the region; the people of Azerbaijan are peace advocates, according to Mrs Gafarova.

There have been trilateral meetings attended by the president of Azerbaijan and the Armenian premier at the suggestion of the president of the EU Council Charles Michel. The Azerbaijani side are very determined in their steps taken towards signing a peace accord and they hope that Armenia will show a constructive approach and honour its part of the relevant obligations so that peace treaty negotiations can be started without any further delay.

The Chair of the Milli Majlis went further to say that the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, established back in 1918 as the first democratic republic in the East, was also the first in the East to have given women the suffrage and had done so before several European states could. Mrs Gafarova then told her guest about the Azerbaijani legislation on defence of women’s rights, the relevant work done so far, education for women and women’s hands-on involvement in the social life of our country.

Vice President of Germany’s Federal Diet Katrin Göring-Eckardt thanked for the hospitality and the sincere reception before stressing her country’s keenness on furthering the bilateral connexions and describing Azerbaijan as Germany’s important economic and energy partner.

Besides, Mrs Göring-Eckardt shared her thoughts about making the inter-parliamentary bonds stronger – including enhancing the interaction amongst the inter-parliamentary friendship groups – and about the Azerbaijani gas export sales to Europe and the co-operation between our countries in education and cultural affairs.

The head of the Azerbaijan-Germany inter-parliamentary connexions working group Nurlan Hasanov, the Azerbaijani ambassador in Berlin Ramin Hasanov and Germany’s Charge d’Affaires in Baku Heiko Schwarz were amongst the other participants of this meeting.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis