KHANKENDI, Azerbaijan, May 1. Azerbaijan rejects relevance of European Parliament decisions, Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration, told reporters during the visit of representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Azerbaijan to East Zangezur and Karabakh, TurkicWorld reports.
According to him, European Parliament’s decision can be described as a diplomatic disgrace and a diplomatic failure.
“First, we note that the decisions adopted by the European Parliament have no significance for the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Republic of Azerbaijan has no obligations to this institution.
Second, the European Parliament, as an institution, has no specific mandate to express a position on such issues. In this regard, it should be clearly stated: who or which states have granted the European Union’s parliamentary institution such a mandate to express similar opinions on regions or countries outside the European Union and their problems? Therefore, overall, this is of no consequence to us.”
So what does this mean? The Republic of Azerbaijan is taking serious steps to ensure lasting peace and security in the region. As you can see, in the context of the serious steps taken by Azerbaijan toward deriving economic benefits from peace in the process of normalizing Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, toward promoting Armenia’s energy security, and less than a day after the visit of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Armenia, the European Union is adopting such a shameful, diplomatically inappropriate resolution.
Thus, these individuals in the European Parliament must understand that they are directly creating obstacles to the peace process. We can assess their actions as destructive, provocative, and a step toward dragging the region back into war and tension. These are Armenia and Azerbaijan—as you can see, both states are currently taking steps in line with the spirit of the decisions adopted at the Washington summit. “
Hajiyev stressed that the initiative here lies with the Republic of Azerbaijan, and our country is promoting a peace agenda:
However, we must once again note with regret that such steps are being taken by the European Parliament. It is various political groups that are speaking out with anti-Azerbaijani and Islamophobic sentiments and taking such a position.”
“I would like to emphasize once again that this is of no consequence to us, but we have made our firm position on this matter clear through diplomatic channels. This was confirmed by information released today to the press by the Azerbaijani Parliament, which announced the suspension of all ties with the European Parliament. I agree with your point that this also undermines the European Union’s policy toward the South Caucasus.”
