French co-chairmanship in OSCE MG revised - UPDATE

Azerbaijan urged Ireland chairing in the OSCE in 2012 to take concrete steps to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Vice-Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Bahar Muradova told Trend today.

She said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was the main topic of discussions at a meeting with the Irish delegation within the OSCE PA winter session in Vienna.

The sides exchanged the views on the work that Ireland, as acting chairing country of the organization, wants and will conduct. The proposals for several meetings and events with the participation of Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly were put forward, Muradova said.

"I stressed that Ireland's activity as the OSCE chairing country must serve not only to bring the representatives of the delegations together. It should be aimed at a global approach to the issue and to give effect to the measures which can promote the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement."

She said that the Irish delegation was informed about the importance of implementing the measures for the rapprochement of the parties' positions, as well as taking specific steps to make a certain pressure on Armenia as the aggressor country for it to take a constructive position.

"The Irish delegation wants to achieve concrete results," she said. "Using their desire, we must also expand our efforts and are willing to cooperate."

The successive meetings with the Irish delegation will be held to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict this year, Muradova stressed.

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The question of keeping the French co-chairmanship of the Minsk Group has been raised by the
Azerbaijani delegation at the 11th session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, deputy chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliament Bahar Muradova told Trend on Monday.

She said the Azerbaijani delegation raised a number of important questions at the first plenary session of the OSCE in Vienna.

"In particular the question of what extent it is possible to believe the impartiality of France as a co-chair of the Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, taking into account that it adopted a law criminalizing the denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide".

"How does the OSCE assess this law against the terms of freedom of speech and opinion? Also, what is the attitude of the OSCE and its Parliamentary Assembly to France's step," Muradova said. She noted not an abstract rather than concrete answer was given to these questions.

"In particular, it was said that it's necessary to take advantage of the existing format of the OSCE Minsk Group, to look only to the future and identify suitable targets for the solution of the problem,"  Muradova said.

She said during a debate a member of the French delegation said that the aforementioned law is directed not only against Turkey and not only the "Armenian genocide", but all mass murders committed and bloodshed.

"The French representative found it necessary to remind us that this law is being considered by the Constitutional Council and has not yet come into force," she said.

No one in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly except for the Azerbaijani delegation expressed regret in relation to the law being adopted in France, Muradova noted.



/Trend/