Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova had a meeting on 11 January with the delegation led by Fayez bin Abdullah Al-Shehri who leads the Saudi Arabia-Azerbaijan inter-parliamentary friendship group in the Consultative Assembly of SA.

Mrs Gafarova told the guests of the special importance that Azerbaijan attaches to promoting the relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and broadening the co-operation in various fields. Our ties are now at a high level, with an ample scope for further expansion. It goes without saying that high- and supreme-level reciprocal visits play an exceptional role in the development of bilateral relations, according to Mrs Gafarova, who stressed that their progress began with the visit of the National Leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev to Saudi Arabia in 1994. Now, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan is continuing the process successfully.

Madam Speaker broached the fruitful co-operation in international organisations and praised the Saudi backing through international organisations, especially the UN and the OIC, for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of the boundaries of our country recognised as such internationally. The fair position taken by the Kingdom on this issue is appreciated equally as much. In general, Saudi Arabia is one of the few states that never established diplomatic relations with Armenia because of the occupation of Azerbaijani lands. This spells great moral support and fraternal feelings towards the Azerbaijani people and their state.

The speaker of the Azerbaijani legislature stressed as she was talking about the outcomes of the 44 days’ Patriotic War that Azerbaijan had single-handedly enforced the four resolutions of the UN Security Council about the unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from our formerly occupied territories. Those resolutions as well as pertaining decisions and statements of other international organisations had remained unfulfilled for 27 years. Well, that was how Azerbaijan de-occupied her own lands. Then, the Saudi visitors were told that Armenia had been purposefully destroying Islamic artefacts and desecrating mosques during the three decades of occupation of Azerbaijani lands; in so doing, Armenia had insulted not only the people of Azerbaijan but the whole of the Islamic World as well.

Right now, Azerbaijan is engaged in large-scale restoration of the liberated territories. Our ex-IDP have begun to return to their homelands already – though this process is hampered by Armenia’s on-going mining of those areas.

The Azerbaijanis who used to live in Armenia had been driven from their native parts even before the outbreak of the conflict, with the modern-day Armenia itself having been established in the historically Azerbaijani provinces – the provinces that our people had inhabited for centuries on end. Still, Sahiba Gafarova said confidently, the Western Azerbaijanis too would return to their ancestral lands in the end.

Azerbaijan is taking great pains to establish lasting peace and stability in the region while Armenia is avoiding participation in this process under various pretexts.

Then, Sahiba Gafarova brought up the subject of the Azerbaijani-Saudi inter-parliamentary connexions and their evolution. She stressed the importance for this progress of the work done by the friendship groups in both assemblies as well as of the interaction amongst the sides’ parliamentary committees.

The inception of the Non-Aligned Movement’s Parliamentary Network at the suggestion of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev was mentioned as well. Sahiba Gafarova touched on the significance of co-operation on international parliamentary platforms and said she was certain that the current visit of the delegation of the Shura Council of Saudi Arabia was going to serve the cause of deepening the relations and inter-parliamentary ties between our fraternal nations.

Head of the SA-Azerbaijan inter-parliamentary friendship group of the Saudi Arabian Consultative Council Fayez bin Abdullah Al-Shehri thanked for the warm welcome before saying that the Kingdom gave considerable weight to promotion of ties and deepening of co-operation with Azerbaijan.

The Saudi parliamentarian voiced his very high praise for the development processes going on under the leadership of the Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev and recalled President Aliyev’s ideas of Azerbaijan being a dependable partner – those ideas manifest themselves in our relationship also. The member of the Shura Council proceeded to share his impressions from what he had observed in Baku during his current visit. They had eye-witnessed prosperity and tranquillity in our country, according to Fayez bin Abdullah Al-Shehri.

The high level of relations between the two countries was duly noted. In addition, it was said that co-operation in various fields, including between the two legislative bodies, was in the interests of both nations. With what, the Saudi parliamentarian also outlined his thoughts on the subject.

After that there was an exchange of views upon the progress of bilateral relations, inter-parliamentary contacts, friendly ties and co-operation, promotion of economic and trading bonds and new co-operation opportunities in investments. Other topics of shared interest were covered, too.

The other participants of this meeting included Fatma Yildirim of the Milli Majlis working group for inter-parliamentary connexions with Saudi Arabia, Head of the Milli Majlis Staff Farid Hajiyev and the Azerbaijani ambassador in Riyadh Shahin Abdullayev.

The Press and Public Relations Department  

The Milli Majlis