INCIDENT OCCURS IN ROUNDTABLE ON NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT IN MOSCOW

APA
Nov 2 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku. Lachin Sultanova – APA. An incident occurred at the roundtable
on the theme "Nagorno Karabakh conflict: creating conditions for the
establishment of peace, Russia’s role" held in the editorial office
of the Izvestia newspaper in Moscow.

Chairman of Russia’s Islamic Committee Heydar Jamal, who attended
the meeting, told APA that the incident was connected with the
participation of the representative of the separatist regime.

"We demanded that he should participate in the event as an individual,
not as the representative of Nagorno Karabakh. But as his speech
was not participation in the discussion, but a political statement,
he was immediately removed from the roundtable," he said.

Heydar Jamal said there were more Armenians than Azerbaijanis in
the discussions and added that Rasim Musabayov and Evez Hasanov
represented Azerbaijan.

"Though I was invited to the roundtable as the chairman of Russia’s
Islamic Committee, I can be considered the person, who represented
Azerbaijan, as I supported Azerbaijan’s position in Nagorno Karabakh
issue," he said.

Heydar Jamal considers that Nagorno Karabakh conflict would have been
impossible, if Russia had not supported Armenia.

"Taking into account these two moments, we had an opportunity to
express our position. The injustice of the Armenian experts caused
negative climate, atmosphere of nonprofessional analysis at the event.

As usual, main issues were not discussed. Little time was allotted for
speeches, but the Armenians spoke more, as more Armenians attended
the roundtable and they did not obey the regulations. I told the
participants that the countries around the South Caucasus – Iran,
Turkey, Russia, Europe are not interested in the settlement of the
conflict, as they use the current situation for their interests.

Russia does not want the conflict to end without its participation,
because always, in the Soviet times, anti-Azerbaijan lobby that united
around Beria demonstrated solidarity with the national interests
of Armenians. Russia played the anti-Azerbaijan role in the Soviet
times and in the post-Soviet history. Russia is interested in the
protraction of the conflict. Earlier, there was Azerbaijan-Turkey unity
against Armenia and Iran. Now, due to the new format of Armenia-Turkey
relations, Azerbaijan has been ringed by Iran, Armenia, distancing
Turkey and Moscow that supports Yerevan-Tehran line. The role of the
West is also obscure, in fact Azerbaijan remains in the strategic
isolation," he said.