Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 24
By Trend:
The 13th session of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation held in Tehran saw adoption of two resolutions on Azerbaijan– “On Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan” and “On remembrance of the victims of the Khojaly genocide”.
Azerbaijani MPs Govhar Bakshaliyeva and Mirkazim Kazimov attended the session.
Bakshaliyeva, addressing the session, noted that Azerbaijan hugely contributes to the Islamic solidarity mission.
“2017 was announced “The Year of Islamic Solidarity” in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is at the vanguard of the countries fighting Islamophobia. In 2017, Azerbaijan hosted the Islamic Solidarity Games. This enormous sports event demonstrated to the world that Islam is the religion of peace and good,” she said.
The MP further added that it has been more than 20 years that Armenia occupies 20 percent of Azerbaijani land – Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and seven adjacent districts. “As a result of the Armenian occupation, more than one million Azerbaijanis became refugees or internally displaced persons. The occupied territories were subjected to ethnic cleansing and were plundered. Armenia destroyed all cultural, religious and archaeological monuments in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Today, Armenia wants to establish friendly relations with various Muslim countries. Muslims around the world should know that Armenia, which has destroyed sacred mosques and other religious monuments, can not become a friend of a Muslim country,” said Bakshaliyeva.
She reminded that the UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on the immediate, full and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the Azerbaijani territories.
“The OIC and other international organizations adopted similar decisions and resolutions, but Armenia is not fulfilling them. Azerbaijani people will never accept the Armenian occupation and the conflict must only be resolved within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, within its territorial integrity,” Bakhshaliyeva said.
Then organizational issues were discussed at the session.
The Azerbaijani delegation was elected a member of the general committee, the executive committee and the committee on human rights, issues of women and children of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC for 2018.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.