Azeri MPs criticize NATO for inviting Armenian officers to Azerbaijan

ANS TV, Baku
7 Sep 04

[Presenter] Most of the MPs in the Milli Maclis [parliament] today
demanded that the members of the Karabakh Liberation Organization
[KLO] be released. The parliamentarians also protested against NATO
which has invited Armenians to Baku.

[MP Fazail Agamali, chairman of the pro-government Motherland Party]
We are categorically against the planned visit by Armenian officers
who were directly involved in the occupation of Azerbaijan’s lands,
rose to higher ranks in this [Karabakh] war and whose hands are
imbrued with Azerbaijani blood. I would suggest that we appeal to
NATO’s headquarters today and ask them not to allow the Armenian
officers to attend the exercises in view of the serious resentment
within the country.

[MP Qudrat Hasanquliyev, chairman of the pro-government United
Peoples Front of Azerbaijan Party] They [Armenians] expelled more than
200,000 [ethnic] Azerbaijanis [from Armenia] in cold winter days [in
1988-89]. How can we host those Armenians in our five-star hotels and
cater for them today? I think that the Milli Maclis has to express
its position on the issue. We have to appeal to the president and
ask him to express his stance on the issue.

[MP Mais Safarli, leader of the opposition Compatriot Party] If the
Azerbaijani public unanimously says no to the visit of the Armenian
officers today, then under no circumstances can we allow the Armenians
to come. I think that if the Azerbaijani government lets them in,
its reputation within the Azerbaijani people will be ruined completely.

[MP Sahlar Asgarov] [NATO] should give up its plan to turn Azerbaijan
into a social lab by bringing here first two, then four and then 40
Armenian servicemen.

[Passage omitted: MP Karim Karimov from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party
says the sentence on the KLO members has caused public resentment]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress