At her meeting with President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Duarte Pacheco on 16 May, Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova followed the exchange of greetings and the thanks to Mr Pacheco for his attendance of the special session of the Azerbaijani Parliament on National Leader Heydar Aliyev’s centenary with the reminder that the current year had been pronounced The Heydar Aliyev Year to a decree by President Ilham Aliyev.

That decision, which, again, was made in connexion with Heydar Aliyev’s 100^th jubilee, has been followed by national-level festivities and eventing including those staged by the Milli Majlis. As for the special session of the Azerbaijani Parliament today, it is a congress that brings together also heads of many national parliaments and delegates of several inter-parliamentary entities, Mrs Gafarova remarked.

Heydar Aliyev devoted his whole life to preserving and strengthening Azerbaijani statehood and improving public welfare both during the Soviet years and in the national independence period. His leadership aptness, far-sighted policy and iron will made certain that the Great Leader’s name went down in Azerbaijan’s history forever upon the accomplishment of the historic mission of overcoming economic, social and political recession at the most dramatic moments in Azerbaijan, rescuing the state from the fangs of instability, saving it from disintegration and averting civil confrontations.

The independent Azerbaijan, the most precious legacy of our modern statehood’s founder, National Leader Heydar Aliyev, is advancing dynamically under the leadership of her President Ilham Aliyev nowadays. Our nation will always remember its remarkable son with gratitude and will always treasure his memory.

Mrs Gafarova then spoke of the great importance that Azerbaijan attaches to co-operation with the IPU, and commended the role of the IPU in the development of inter-parliamentary relations and parliamentary diplomacy worldwide.

She mentioned the energetic participation of her parliamentary delegation in the work of the IPU and the election of the Milli Mejlis to the Eurasian Geopolitical Group in February 2022. Sahiba Gafarova thanked Duarte Pacheco for his support to the initiative of establishing the Network and his participation in its activities speaking on behalf of Azerbaijan as the Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Azerbaijan stays committed to inter-parliamentary co-operation whereas the Network intends to help achieve common goal and unite forces, including with the IPU, to find solutions for the current global issues, according to Sahiba Gafarova.

President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Duarte Pacheco thanked the Milli Majlis for the invitation to its special meeting today in memoriam the Great Leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev. Mr Pacheco also expressed pleasure at his participation of the session.

Mr Pacheco remarked appreciatively that Azerbaijan is one of the more active IPU members; he also underscored Azerbaijan’s serious role as an IPU member.

Then, the IPU leader spoke of the need to broaden parliamentary diplomacy’s scope in the current epoch and said that the IPU stood ready to co-operate with the NAM PN.

They also exchanged views on various aspects of the IPU-NAM PN interaction aspects as the conversation drew on.

The Press and Public Relations Department  
The Milli Majlis