DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF RULING PARTY SAYS NEW FRENCH PRESIDENT SHOULD CHANGE FRANCE’S POSITION TOWARD TURKEY

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
May 7 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku/ Trend , corr. I. Alizadeh/Ali Ahmadov, a Member of
the Milli Majlis (Azerbaijan’s Parliament), Deputy of the Chairman of
the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), has said in Baku today that the
position of the newly-elected French President, Nicola Sarkozi towards
Turkey gives concern to Azerbaijan, by adding that our country hopes
that the new Head of the French State will change his cool attitude
toward Turkey.

He noted that that the statements made by the candidates for the
post of President of France during the presidential campaign were
different to those principles they took as the basis. "I hope that
Mr. Sarkozi will realize the reality and rapidly change his attitude
toward Turkey," said Mr. Ahmadov.

The representative of the ruling Party noted that it was the
population of France, who elected the French President by adding that
Azerbaijani citizens had no possibility to have an effect on this
process. "We hope that France is headed by such a person, who, being
one of the OSCE Minks Co-Chairs, could approach the resolution of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict objectively and unbiased
and achieve acceleration of the peaceful process," considers Ahmadov.

The Azerbaijani MP believes that it is too early to speak of how
Nicola Sarkozi will act within his post of President of France in the
future. Despite the fact that during the election campaign Sarkozi
expressed his position toward Turkey. "However, he did not touch
upon the troubles that Azerbaijan faced," said Ahmadov. "For this
reason, it is very difficult to determine the future position of the
newly-elected French President. I consider that being a country with
developed democratic traditions, France will do everything possible to
make its contribution in the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group, which
was specially built up to peacefully resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh
issue on the basis of objective principles," said the Azerbaijani MP.

The Deputy Chairman of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) noted
that OSCE should approach this issue from the point of view of just
principles. According to him, applying any other criteria, which
will be worked out by the Minsk Group, may lead to failure of the
OSCE mediation mission. "I think that the new French President is
well aware of that, and I hope that his future activity on this post
will meet with the truth," concluded Ahmadov.