Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova met with the visiting delegation of the Association of the Ombudsmen of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation on 15 September.

Sahiba Gafarova said on greeting the guests that this meeting with them coincided with a very remarkable day in Azerbaijan as Baku was liberated from the Bolshevik-Dashnak forces on 15 September 103 years ago.

Our countries support each other invariably; their relations set the highest standards attainable at present, according to the Chair of the Azerbaijani parliament.

Sahiba Gafarova also recalled the trilateral meeting that the parliamentary delegations of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Pakistan had had at the Milli Majlis on 27 July. The Baku Declaration signed as a result of that meeting is going to contribute to the reinforcement of the strategic relations amongst our countries, according to her.

Madame Speaker also informed the delegation members of the 44-day Patriotic War. The thirty years of negotiating resolution of this conflict, now committed to history, had yielded no results because of the unhelpful position adopted by Armenia. Armenia had been resorting to various provocations impeding the talks with a view to retaining our lands in its occupation. Last year, however, our country stopped the three-decades-long occupation and restored the integrity of its national territory under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev. In so doing, Azerbaijan also enforced independently the four resolutions of the UN Security Council that had for long years only remained on paper. Now, then, is the beginning of homecoming for the internally displaced people who were evicted from their native parts owing to the occupation. Regrettably, Armenia will not stop its provocative activities and is putting obstacles on the path to a restored peace, edification and arrangement.

Going further, Sahiba Gafarova said that the guests were going to go to our de-occupied towns and provinces as part of the current visit. They will be able to see with their own eyes the atrocities by Armenia in those parts. Armenia, Mrs Gafarova noted, had destroyed ruthlessly our towns and villages as well as our people’s historical and cultural heritage and mosques in the thirty years’ occupation. Those areas put one in mind of Hiroshima in the truest sense of the word.

Restoration and rebuilding are afoot in the areas freed from the interventionists, added the Chair of the Milli Majlis.

President of the Association of the Ombudsmen of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation and Ombudsman General of the Republic of Turkey Şeref Malkoç thanked Chair Sahiba Gafarova for her hospitality before pinpointing the dynamic advance of the relations between our countries. Mr Malkoç remembered the visit to Azerbaijan when the 44-day Patriotic War was going on and how they had checked the situation in Ganja, Agdam, Minghechavir and Terter, visited the gravesides of the Azerbaijani brothers killed by the missiles launched from Armenia and met their families and friends. Mr Malkoç said that the report drawn up at that time had been submitted to the appropriate agencies in both Turkey and Azerbaijan as well as sent to the UN and the international human rights organisations. As for the current visit, its scope includes travels to Agdam, Terter and the provinces around them. The delegation will inspect in situ the evidence of Armenia having damaged and destroyed the Azerbaijani people’s historical and cultural legacy. The refusal by Armenia to disclose the minefield maps is a gross violation of the international laws and a special report on this will be written for submission to the UN and the international human rights organisations, Mr Malkoç stressed.

Muhammad Javed Ghani, Advisor to the Ombudsman of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, spoke of the high ebb of the relations between our two countries, too, then pointing out that Pakistan was always by Azerbaijan’s side and attached a great importance to deepening the bilateral co-operation.

Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) Sabina Aliyeva, Ombudsman of the Republic of Turkey Celile Özlem Tunçak, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Turkey to Azerbaijan Cahit Bağçı and other officials were taking part in the meeting, too.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis