Analyst Vladimir Socor’s support for Azerbaijani position at NATO Parliamentary Assembly caused protest by Russian and Armenian parliamentarians

57th session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly was held in Bucharest, Romania. Azerbaijani delegation to the assembly was led by first vice speaker of the parliament Ziyafet Asgarov and consisting of members of the parliament Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Siyavush Novruzov, Malahat Ibrahimgizi and Tahir Suleymanov. MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev said they held discussions on a number of important issues at the 57th session.

The most intensive discussions were held during the hearing of report on Ukraine and Moldova by the expert of US Jamestown Foundation Vladimir Socor. During the discussions Hasanguliyev reminded that Azerbaijani lands have been under Armenian occupation for 20 years and Azerbaijan couldn’t restore its territorial integrity during this period: “I noted that Russia is an indirect and direct participant of the post-soviet conflicts. I asked Vladimir Socor, if three republics – Azerbaijan, Moldova and Georgia, which couldn’t restore its independences, turn into Russia’s outpost after Armenia and turn into active participant Vladimir Putin’s plan on restoration of USSR under the name of Eurasian Union, will it help them to ensure their territorial integrities, or not? After my question one of the Armenian representatives said that his country wasn’t Russia’s outpost. The Armenian representative claimed that Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity was out of the question in the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, because Armenian people has self-determined”.

Answering the question, expert of Jamestown Foundation Vladimir Socor said that Armenia pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing by expelling 800 thousand Azerbaijanis from their homes. Stressing the unjust positions of the international union to these conflicts, Socor said that he agreed with Hasanguliyev’s opinion that Russia was a side in all 3 conflicts. According to Socor, Russia’s mediatory role in these conflicts is mistake and the international union made a serious mistake by involving Moscow in these processes. Socor noted that the world union left Azerbaijan face to face with a great tragedy and injustice. It needs to organize international conference larger than present one to eliminate this injustice and to make serious decisions to solve the problems.

According to Gudrat Hasanguliyev, MPs from Russia and Armenia attacked him, but support and applauds by other participants to Socor’s opinion calmed down the protesters.


/APA/