Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2
Trend:
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received Vice-Chair of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe at the European Parliament, Eastern Partnership rapporteur for Azerbaijan Norica Nicolai and member of the European Parliament Iveta Grigule.
The president said the European Parliament's resolutions on Azerbaijan played a central role in the relations between the country and the organization.
President Aliyev said relations between Azerbaijan and the European Parliament were cut off because of the organization's adopting absolutely groundless resolutions on Azerbaijan, which were full of insults.
"Azerbaijan and the European Parliament do not have any relations now, and Azerbaijan is not to blame for this. Our country just defended its just position," he said.
The president said the top officials of the organization - its president and vice-president - in fact, were part of the anti-Azerbaijani force, adding that their insulting statements, attacks and slander questioned the prospects of Azerbaijan-European Parliament relations.
President Aliyev said that because of such relations, no working group on cooperation with the European Parliament had been created at the parliament of Azerbaijan.
However, the president said, some members of the European Parliament had a just attitude towards Azerbaijan, adding that they took an unbiased approach to the issues.
The president also stressed the importance of the fact that these members of the European Parliament demonstrated great support for Azerbaijan during the adoption of the latest resolution last September. President Aliyev said the unjust anti-Azerbaijani position of some senior officials of the European Parliament contradicted the position of the European Commission.
He said that during the visit of President of the European Council Donald Tusk to Azerbaijan last year both sides expressed interest in developing the relations.
"The visit of High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini to the country this February contributed to strengthening European Commission-Azerbaijan cooperation. These relations are now successfully developing. Documents on strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and a number of member countries of the European Union were signed or adopted," said President Aliyev.
"At the same time, Azerbaijan successfully continues its activity in the Council of Europe, and the Council of Europe highly appreciates the processes taking place in Azerbaijan. All this is another testimony that some top officials and anti-Azerbaijani groups of the European Parliament want to spoil Europe-Azerbaijan ties with their unjust position. And Azerbaijan will not restore its relations with the European Parliament unless these destructive forces correct their policy," he added.
Vice-Chair of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe at the European Parliament, Eastern Partnership rapporteur for Azerbaijan Norica Nicolai said the situation relating to Azerbaijan was changing, adding that she wanted the relations between the country and the European Parliament to normalize.
Noting that the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe at the European Parliament supported Azerbaijan, she said the group would continue its activity on this front. Saying that they prepared a report on Azerbaijan-European Parliament cooperation, Norica Nicolai noted that their visit aimed to conduct the final exchange of views on the report.
President Aliyev thanked Norica Nicolai for her objective and just stance, and asked her to extend his greetings to the members of the European Parliament that were Azerbaijan's friends.