Armenian MPs’ Planned Visit Fails

AssA-Irada 26/11/2004 16:06

Armenian parliament members did not arrive in Baku to attend the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly Rose Roth seminar which started on Thursday.

Chairman of the Armenian parliament commission on defense, security
and internal affairs Mger Shahgeldian stated that this is due to
Baku’s failure to provide safety guarantees for Armenian MPs.

Director of the Milli Majlis (parliament) international relations
department Namig Aliyev says that Azerbaijani authorities guaranteed
security for all participants, including Armenian MPs, and that
the latter decided not to travel to Baku at the last minute, while
in Moscow.

Aliyev continued that NATO representatives disapproved of this step by
Armenian parliament members. “Armenians want us to deny them entry
to the country and thus deal a blow on us. In reality, they are the
ones who were hurt by this.”

Shahgeldian and another Armenian MP, Karapetian, were initially
expected to attend the NATO seminar. Pan-Armenian news agency reported
that the reason for the Armenian MPs’ not attending the event was
Azerbaijan’s refusal to admit Armenian officers to a NATO seminar and
an ethnically Armenian Bulgarian journalist, who was denied entry at
the Baku airport, and killing of an Armenian serviceman by an Azeri
officer in Budapest, Hungary.