AZERBAIJAN IS A VERY INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT COUNTRY FOR ISRAEL: ISRAELI MP
Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 15 2007
Israel, Jerusalem /corr. Trend R.Mammadov / The member of Knesset
(Israel), Ran Koen, supports the idea of conducting joint discussions
of the Azerbaijani, Turkish, Armenian and Israeli specialists with
regards to the so-called ‘Armenian genocide’ in 1915-1917 during the
Ottoman Empire. "Holding a round table attended by the Azerbaijani,
Turkish and Armenian sides and members of the Israeli parliament is
interesting," Ran Koen stated in his interview with Trend.
The Israeli parliamentarian from Merets Party, Ran Koen, stated that
following the US House of Representatives, the Knesset should recognize
the ‘genocide’ of Armenian people and appeal with such an initiative
to the Commission for Foreign Affairs and Defense. On 15 October in
a conversation, the President of the Congress of Azerbaijanis in
Middle East, Alex Shapiro-Suliman, expressed dissatisfaction with
Koen’s position and initiated to hold a quadrilateral round table.
Koen stressed that he did not think that his proposal may cause
dissatisfaction and indignation of the Azerbaijani community.
Koen said that Azerbaijan is a very interesting and important country
for Israel. "It is very comfortable to co-operate with Azerbaijan
because official Baku carries out its policy basing on the national
interests of Azerbaijan and mutual respect for all countries. From
this point of view, I highly assess the level of the co-operation
between Azerbaijan and Israel," he added.
Koen reported to Trend that he remembers his days in Azerbaijan with
great love and respect. "Personally I discovered that the Azerbaijanis
are very hospitable and modern people, who preserve and respect their
culture and folklore and respectfully approach other peoples residing
in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a very interesting and important country
for Israel," Israeli parliamentarian said.
The Israeli parliamentarian said that the main problem of Azerbaijan
is the territorial conflict with Armenia, which resulted in occupation
of 20% Azerbaijani territories and appearance of more than one million
refugees and internally displaced persons. "Firstly I want to mention
that the international community, including Israel, have less knowledge
of this tragedy of Azeri people. In this meaning, Azerbaijan and its
diplomacy should do much to increase world community’s information
on it," Koen said.
In March the Knesset decided to delete from the agenda the proposal
of parliamentarian Haim Oron (Merets Party) to discuss the so-called
‘Armenian genocide’ at the meeting of the Commission for Education
and culture. The decision to cancel the discussions on the so-called
‘Armenian genocide’ was made according to the decision of Prime
Minister, Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister, Tsipi Livini.