MP Tural Ganjaliyev met with Helen Mackenzie and Ryan Grist of the Joint Analysis of Conflict and Stability Group of the UK on 9 December.

After an exchange of greetings Tural Ganjaliyev pointed it out to the guests that he as a member of parliament represented the Khankendi constituency and that he was a member of the supervisory board of the Garabagh Revival Fund. He proceeded to tell the arrivals about the extensive restoration and building work that the state is carrying out in the de-occupied Azerbaijani territories. A process has been started that will provide for the internally displaced people’s safe return to their native parts, as MP Ganjaliyev explained. It is intended to allocate AZN 2.2 bn from the next-year State Budget of Azerbaijan towards the costs of restoring the infrastructure completely devastated by Armenia and of building anew the formerly-occupied towns and villages that the occupiers had razed to the ground during the years of occupation. The Azerbaijani MP mentioned with pleasure the projects going on in the freed lands with the participation of other countries – including the United Kingdom.

The guests were then let know of today’s accident in the Shusha Province where two civilians had died tripping a mine. MP Ganjaliyev emphasised the importance of international co-operation in the de-mining process.

Further, Tural Ganjaliyev said that Azerbaijan strove for peace, reopened communications and economic co-operation build-up in the region. Our country has made several initiatives to that end, too. Azerbaijan is equally keen on reintegrating its citizens of the Armenian extraction politically, economically and in humanitarian terms.

Ryan Grist and Helen Mackenzie asked their questions about the post-conflict agenda, reinforcement of peace and arrangement of peaceful coexistence in the territories where the conflict had had its grim reign previously. The meeting went on as a Q&A session; the relevant co-operation opportunities were brought up. There was an exchange of opinions.

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On the same day, MP Erkin Gadirli met with the above-said Helen Mackenzie and Ryan Grist.

MP Gadirli welcomed the guests and told them that the people of Azerbaijan had only recently been celebrating the first anniversary of the Triumph in the 44 days’ Patriotic War that had given the country the wholeness of its territory whilst also having restored historical justice. The Britons were told that the thirty-year-long occupation of our lands by the armed forces of Armenia had made desolate the affected citizens of Azerbaijan and that Armenia had totally wiped out the infrastructure of the captured provinces, towns and villages of our country in the period of occupation. Our tangible heritage had sustained a heavy blow, too.

Restoration and building operations continue in Garabagh in success as it stands. Modern infrastructure is being built in our freed towns and villages; the Smart City and Smart Village projects are being carried into life. Every arrangement is being put in place for the homecoming of our compatriots who had been left homeless temporarily.

Azerbaijan has always advocated peace, well-being and mutually beneficial interstate co-operation in the region; Azerbaijan has never spared an effort to achieve all that, either.

Erkin Gadirli clarified some matters of interest to the guests and answered their questions as the conversation bore on.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis