TODAY.AZ / Politics

Closure of OSCE Project Coordinator in Baku to not damage cooperation

02 July 2015 [09:32] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

By Aynur Karimova

The OSCE has said that the termination of the Memorandum of Understanding on the OSCE Project Coordinator in Baku will not damage other forms of Azerbaijan’s cooperation within the OSCE framework.

The OSCE press service told local APA agency on July 1 that while dialogue on options for further steps related to the OSCE presence in Azerbaijan continues, the organization has started the technical process of discontinuing the operations of the project coordinator in Azerbaijan.

OSCE noted that the mandate for the project coordinator remains in force until December 31, 2015.

The Azerbaijani government decided to suspend the activities of the OSCE Project Coordinator in Baku and on June 3, 2015, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry sent a letter informing the head office of the OSCE in Vienna of its decision.

The letter stated that the Azerbaijani government did not see the need for the continued operation of the OSCE Project Coordinator in Baku. Therefore, since June 4, 2015, the Azerbaijani government considered invalid the MoU on the Project Coordinator in Baku signed between the Azerbaijani government and OSCE.

Azerbaijan became a member of the OSCE in 1992. That same year, Azerbaijan became signatory to the Helsinki Final Act, to the Charter of Paris in 1993, and to the Charter for European Security in 1999, all of which are the main instruments of the organization.

Azerbaijan and the OSCE are cooperating in combating terrorism, promoting religious tolerance in Azerbaijan, and improving cooperation between governmental institutions and civil society organizations in the fields of combating human trafficking and domestic violence, while supporting good governance projects.

Cooperation with the OSCE plays a key role in the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The OSCE created the Minsk Group in 1992 with an aim to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is co-chaired by France, the Russian Federation, and the United States.

Azerbaijan is also cooperating with the OSCE in the field of democratization and in this regard, the organization regularly observes elections in Azerbaijan.

Ogtay Asadov, the speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament, has sent a letter to the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Ilkka Kanerva, asking to send a mission to observe the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country.

Bahar Muradova, the vice-speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament and a member of the country’s delegation to the OSCE PA, told local media discussions on this issue will be opened during the annual session of the OSCE PA in Helsinki on July 5-9, and the parliamentarians who intend to observe the elections will then be registered.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/141881.html

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