POLAND SUPPORTS TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF AZERBAIJAN IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT – POLISH PRESIDENT
Trend News Agency
Feb 27 2008
Azerbaijan
Poland, Warsaw, 27 February /Trend/ On 26 February, the President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Lech Kaczynski of Poland gave a joint
press conference in Warsaw within the framework of the Azerbaijani
President’s official visit to Poland.
"We have been cooperating for over 2 years. But the current visit is of
special importance for our countries, for the relationships between
our countries have become stronger and have acquired a strategic
character. Azerbaijan is a strategic ally for Poland, which considers
it important as a part of its foreign policy to render assistance to
Azerbaijan in integration to Euro-Atlantic organizations," President
Kaczynski said.
The Polish President said the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia
and Azerbaijan must be solved peacefully and through international
legal norms. "According to the international law, Nagorno-Karabakh
is a part of Azerbaijan and we support this position." Admitting
Poland’s relations with Armenia, Kaczynski stressed that in this
conflict his country follows the principle of inviolability of
territorial integrity.
Touching upon energy field, Kaczynski mentioned that besides its
oil Azerbaijan is also reach in natural gas, which is very important
for Poland.
President Aliyev stressed there are great prospects for bilateral
energy cooperation and the joint declaration signed by the Presidents
will promote it.
The Azerbaijani President thanked Kaczynski for Poland’s constant
support to settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in compliance with
the international legal norms. "The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan
is inviolable and it will not be a subject for discussions. The
problem should be resolved within the framework of the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan, and the international support, as well as the
leading countries’ position on the issue, certainly creates favourable
conditions for the settling.
"Over million of Azerbaijanis were evicted from their lands and
underwent ethnic cleansing during the conflict. One of the proofs for
that is the Khojali massacre, since which time 16 years have passed.
On that day, the Azerbaijani Khojali town underwent aggression
from Armenia. Genocide was committed against Azerbaijanis. Over 600
civilians, including 63 children and 106 women, were murdered that
night. That is a monstrous crime," Aliyev said.
As for the economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Poland, Ilham
Aliyev noted that a large-scale energy dialogue is being held by the
two countries. "Presently, we are determining the frames of the Caspian
Sea-Black Sea-Baltic Sea cooperation, in which energy cooperation
will play an important role. Azerbaijan produces and exports both
oil and gas to the world markets, including the European Union. And
we are to increase the production.
"The relationships between our countries are multilateral. We have good
economic prospects in the economic, energy, political and humanitarian
fields. Azerbaijan and Poland are friendly countries and we build our
relationships within the framework of strategic partnership. We will
strive for maintaining the high level of the relations," President
Aliyev said.