Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova greeted President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Margareta Cederfelt cordially at their meeting before touching on the joint conference of the Azerbaijani Parliament and the OSCE PA ‘'The Role of National Parliaments in Promoting Security and Stability through Green Economy, Connectivity and Sustainable Development'’ held in Baku.

This combined conference, very to the point topically, matters tremendously in that its discourse covered the matters of immense importance standing tall between our states and the OSCE region in general, according to Sahiba Gafarova who added that clean natural environment and green development made one of the priorities of Azerbaijan’s new development strategy for until 2030.

Speaker Gafarova supplied her guest with ample information about the current situation in our region, telling her also that Armenia had held 20 per cent of the Azerbaijani lands in captivity for 30 years having driven a million Azerbaijanis from their native lands and destroyed practically the whole infrastructure and buildings in the formerly-occupied territories. As though that was not enough, Armenia had vandalised the entire historical, cultural and religious heritage of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijan that had for three decades suffered from double standards existing in the world. The international resolutions demanding unconditional termination of the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan’s lands had not been acted upon. In 2020, then, Azerbaijan had resorted to its right to self-defence as envisaged by Article 51 of the UN Charter and had herself implemented the UN Security Council resolutions as well the norms and principles of international law. In that way, our country made her national territory intact again and restored historical justice, Mrs Gafarova continued.

Though a victim of invasion and occupation, Azerbaijan and no other is making efforts to achieve lasting peace and stability in the region, and has invited Armenia to sign a peace treaty based on five international law principles. Mutual recognition of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and border delimitation and demarcation will lead up to peace and stability in the region. Armenia ought to avoid making a move harming the normalisation, execute political will and take practical steps towards inking a peace treaty since this is the sole manner in which long-term peace and stability can be restored to the region.

And yet, Armenia is trying to confuse international community with various claims – the claims that are as departed from the truth as is Armenia’s allegation of blockade of the Lachin Road. Meanwhile, this road is very much open – for humanitarian purposes, that is.

Azerbaijan is now busy building modern towns and villages in the liberated areas, including Garabagh and Eastern Zangazur. A major programme to return our IDPs to their ancestral lands has already begun. The massive mining by Armenia is the biggest obstacle to the revival of the freed lands. According to preliminary estimates, Armenia planted over a million mines there during the occupation. Approximately 300 civilians and soldiers have been killed and injured in mine accidents since the Patriotic War ended in November 2020.

The conference participants will visit Zanghilan tomorrow, by the way. There, they will see with their own eyes the consequences of the Armenian occupation and the devastation it caused. For that, they will also be acquainted with the re-construction taking place in the liberated provinces in keeping with the ‘smart cities and villages’ and ‘green energy’ concepts, Sahiba Gafarova told Margareta Cederfelt.

President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Margareta Cederfelt voiced her appreciation of the hospitality extended to her. Then, she stressed the high organisational standards set by the conference in Baku and emphasised that it embraced most crucial subjects. The weight of parliamentary diplomacy in responding to the biggest challenges the modernity is putting to the whole world could never be exaggerated, in the opinion of Mrs Cederfelt.

There is fruitful co-operation between the OSCE PA and the Milli Majlis; the Azerbaijani Parliament is represented in the Assembly successfully; equally important events have been organised jointly by the parties, Mrs Cederfelt was saying.

Besides, as the conversation went further, Mrs Gafarova and Mrs Cederfelt also turned their attention to other matters of concern to both parties.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis