Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 13 2005

MPs condemn OSCE PA Vice-President’s statement

Baku, April 12, AssA-Irada
MPs condemned the recent statement by Tanish Kaminish, Vice-President
of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA), in a Tuesday meeting of the
Milli Majlis (parliament).
Speaking of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper Garabagh in an
international conference held in Athens, Kaminish stated that there
are 300,000 refugees in Armenia. However, he did not mention the
occupation of 20% of Azerbaijani territory and over one million
refugees and displaced persons.
MP Asaf Hajiyev, who attended the conference, organized by the Greek
parliament and the Black Sea International Research Center, proposed
that the parliament express its position on the Vice-President’s
statement and send a letter to the OSCE PA.
`Besides, the Azerbaijani delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe should ask for permission to raise the issue on
Kaminish’s statement in the next meeting of the Assembly’, he said.
Parliament Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov approved of Hajiyev’s proposal,
noting that the OSCE has not given a political assessment to the
Upper Garabagh conflict yet.
`The OSCE has always approached Azerbaijan with a double standard,’
Alasgarov said.*