Azerbaijan, Baku / Тrend corr S. Ilhamgizi / "The fact that the leaders of the opposition did not participate in the today's Karabakh Forum can be explained by their dependence in outside forces," one of the organizers of the Forum, the Chairman of the Azadlyg party, Ahmad Oruj, stated.
The Karabakh Forum was held on 2 June under the administration of the Union for Democracy uniting three Azerbaijani opposition parties. All chairmen of the opposition parties were invited to the meeting. However, the leaders of the leading parties did not participate. The leaders did not attend the Forum as they did not want to voice their opinion towards the visit of representatives of the Azerbaijani intelligentsia to the Nagorno-Karabakh under the mediation of the OSCE, Oruj said. He added that the leader of the parties were absent as they wanted to avoid touching upon the key subject of the meeting.
"They can neither openly condemn nor advocate the visit. They cannot condemn the visit as they do not want to find themselves at a disadvantage in front of foreign diplomatic representatives and international organizations. At the same time the leaders of opposition parties do not want to lose the trust of people by advocating this visit. The optimal way for then is to hide," the Chairman noted.
The Union for Democracy unites the following three opposition parties: the Classic Popular Front, the Azadlyg and the National-Democratic Party.