FRENCH, AZERI MINISTERS DISCUSS KARABAKH, "GENOCIDE" BILL

Turan News Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 24 2006

Baku, 24 October: Talks between French Foreign Minister Philippe
Douste-Blazy and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov were
held in Paris yesterday [23 October]. A Turan correspondent learnt
from the head of the press and information policy department of the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Tahir Tagizada, that the talks had
lasted over one hour. The ministers discussed three subjects.

Mammadyarov spoke about the implementation of energy projects as well
as public and political reforms in the country. In turn, Douste-Blazy
said that Paris’s attitude to the reforms in Azerbaijan was positive.

The Karabakh settlement was the second subject of the talks.

Mammadyarov spoke about the negative role of the Armenian diaspora
in the settlement of the conflict and the situation in the region.

Douste-Blazy hoped for a speedy settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict.

The third subject, according to Tagizada, was raised by the French side
and had to do with the adoption by the French National Assembly of a
draft law criminalizing the denial of "the genocide of Armenians". This
decision, according to Douste-Blazy, causes official Paris’s "regret
and bewilderment". Douste-Blazy assured Mammadyarov that the French
government would do its best this draft not become a law.