Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. I.Alizadeh / It is expected that Armenian MPs will attend at the meeting of the Cultural, Education and Science Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PA BEC), which will be held in Baku on 3 and 4 October, Asaf Hajiyev, the head of the Azerbaijani Delegation to PA BEC and vice-president of the structure, said on 2 October.
"PA BEC has 12 members. Turkey has not been formed the delegation to the structure after the latest parliamentary elections in the country. The parliamentary elections in Turkey were held on 2 October. Due to aforesaid reasons these countries will not attend at the meeting of the committee. There is no information about participation of Armenian MPs at the meeting," Hajiyev said. Three MPs represent Armenia at the PA BEC, Vladimir Badalyan, Garik Minasyan and Mekhak Mkhitaryan.
Badalyan is the deputy chairman of the Cultural, Education and Science Committee. Increase of subsistence wage in the Black Sea region will be discussed at the meeting.
PA BEC unites 12 countries, Azerbaijan, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, Serbia and Armenia.
Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Russia, Belarus and World Health Organization will attend at the meeting.
"We will raise the issue concerning occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenians, fire of the occupied territories and destroy of historical monuments. We will try to explain the participants of the meeting that occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenians negatively affects on development of the region," the MP added.
The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988 due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these territories have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.