Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova had a meeting with the Head of the Turkey-Azerbaijan Friendship Group of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Şamil Ayrım and Chairman of the GNAT Agrarian Committee Yunus Kılıc on 28 February.

Welcoming the members of the fraternal state’s legislature cordially, Madame Speaker referred to the bonds of friendship and brotherhood holding our countries together and being in their zenith nowadays. The relationship incepted by the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev is now continued by the heads of the two states Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan successfully in the present time. Azerbaijan and Turkey are the two states the closest to each other in the whole world and their connexions will only grow stronger in every area from now on, Mrs Gafarova was saying confidently.

Sahiba Gafarova touched on the relations between the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan and the Great National Assembly of Turkey as well, saying that they were progressing and setting high standards in line with the overall spirit of the inter-state bond. The legislatures as such as well as the MPs have tight co-operation going; both states’ law-makers support each other regarding all the issues that they happen to be facing. The work done by the friendship groups of the two legislatures is commendable in every way, too, whilst the two-way contacts becoming increasingly intensive lead to the further deepening of our relationship.

Azerbaijani and Turkish MPs interact closely in the international organisations, too, the Chair of the Milli Majlis mentioned with pleasure before stressing the need in stronger bipartite co-operation.

We met the thirtieth anniversary of the genocide of the Azerbaijanis by Armenia in the town of Khojali recently; there were events in memoriam the victims of that mass murder. There was a national-wide march to mark the grim anniversary with the participation of President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva. That march and those events reiterated the lasting public memory of the Khojali Genocide that will never ever be forgotten. Only, we commemorate the victims of the genocide are commemorated as a victorious state and a triumphant nation today. A propos, Sahiba Gafarova mentioned with appreciation the input of the fraternal country’s MPs and diaspora organisations to the drive for world-wide recognition of the genocide as such.

Şamil Ayrım thanked Sahiba Gafarova for the kind welcome before talking about the progressing comprehensive bilateral connexions and the unconditional mutual support across the whole of the joint agenda. Mr Ayrım believes in the yet brighter future of the brotherly relations between our countries. As for the inter-parliamentary relations, they are advancing non-stop with a good prop given by the fruitful work done by the friendship groups of the two legislative assemblies.

The Khojali Genocide was not only committed against the people of Azerbaijan but it was done against the humankind as a whole, in the opinion of Şamil Ayrım who mentioned the joint efforts of the fraternal states of Azerbaijan and Turkey to have all the countries recognise that tragedy as genocide and to make certain that an appropriate international legal verdict is passed on it. There are relevant events, ceremonies and marches in Turkey, too. Şamil Ayrım said with persuasion that the efforts put in international recognition of the Khojali Genocide and its admission as such by national parliaments the world over would bear fruit in the end.

The chairman of the Milli Majlis Health Committee and the leader of the Azerbaijan-Turkey Inter-Parliamentary Connexions Working Group Ahliman Amiraslanov and the chairman of the GNAT Agrarian Commission Yunus Kılıc spoke about the high level of the inter-parliamentary relations and underlined the importance of experience and information exchange in law-making in general and between parliamentary committees and commissions, in particular.

Also, there was an exchange of opinions about other matters of shared concern and interest during the conversation.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis