ADRIAN SEVERIN: "SELF-DETERMINATION PRINCIPLE COVERS PEOPLES, BUT NOT ETHNIC MINORITIES"
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 30 2008
Baku. Lachin Sultanova -APA. Foreign minister of Azerbaijan Elmar
Mammadyarov met with Romanian member of the European Parliament Adrian
Severin on Wednesday.
Press-service of the foreign ministry told APA, the guest said
Azerbaijan was not only oil and gas producer, it was an important
country for the European Union for its geopolitical location,
dynamic economic development and as a possible contributor for
the EU-Central Asian cooperation. Mammadyarov has agreed with that
and said first report on Azerbaijan fulfilling the Action Plan for
European Neighborhood Policy has been already prepared and integration
process into Europe caused positive progress in a number of fields in
the country. He urged to research opportunities for the establishing
of GUAM friendship group in the European parliament. Then the sides
exchanged opinions on the Nagorno Karabakh problem and condemned
occupation of Azerbaijani lands and said that veiling of Armenian
ethnic cleansing policy with the principle of self-determination was
unacceptable. Romanian parliamentarian said that self-determination
principle covered the peoples, but not the ethnic minorities and
Armenian people are self-determined within Armenia. It was emphasized
at the meeting to increase knowledge of members of the European
Parliament about Azerbaijan, to organize their visits to Azerbaijan
and to provide Lobbyist activity.