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French Senator Natalie Goulet: Azerbaijan is a country having great potential and striving for regional leadership

17 March 2010 10:20 (UTC +04:00)

The French Senator delivered a lecture on the theme â€œAzerbaijan â€“ the stable state of the Caucasus and Near Eastâ€. She characterized Azerbaijan as a country having great potential and striving for regional leadership and said to establish a stable state it is important to pay attention to the development of education, cooperate with the international organizations such as OSCE, NATO, European Union. Natalie Goulet said though Azerbaijan is not NATO member, Azerbaijani parliamentarians should actively cooperate with NATO Parliamentary Assembly. She also called on Azerbaijan to cooperate with the European Union.

â€œFor the development of democratic society it is important to ensure freedom of religion. Freedom of religion also shows the level of the democracy in the country. All these factors influence establishment of stability in the country. After the country is stable it will attract more investments,â€ she said.
French Senator specially emphasized the active policy pursued by the President of Azerbaijan. â€œHe is representing the country very well. He concentrated his attention on the countryâ€™s future. It is very important factorâ€.

The Senatorâ€™s speech caused strong reaction by political scientist Vafa Guluzadeh. The political scientist said that â€œthere was no point to mention stability and democratic development as long as 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands were occupied by the Azerbaijani lands and despite this aggressive policy, France was loyal to Armeniaâ€.

Director of the Strategic Research Center Elkhan Nuriyev said he agreed with some points of Guluzadehâ€™s speech. â€œThe OSCE Minsk Groupâ€™s efforts towards the conflict settlement didnâ€™t give any result. They intend to do something, but there is no result. The Minsk Groupâ€™s efforts are clear, but there is injustice and the decision concerning this issue must be fairâ€.

Media representatives, international organizations and foreign diplomats attended the meeting.