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Azerbaijani Foreign Minister: â€œI believe Kazan meeting will clarify whether Armenians are playing a game or notâ€

14 June 2011 13:34 (UTC +04:00)

Marneuli. Nizami Mammadzadeh â€“ APA. Within his visit to Georgia, Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mammadyarov visited Marneuli town populated by Azerbaijani community. According to APAâ€™s Georgian bureau, the minister met with the representatives of the government, public community and non-governmental organizations, as well as intellectuals at the local sport complex. In his opening speech, Governor of the Kvemo-Kartli region David Kirkitadze thanked Mammadyarov for his visit to Marneuli.

Mammadyarov introduced newly-appointed Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Georgia Azer Huseyni and said he had quite enough diplomatic experience. Mammadyarov said it was his duty to visit Marneuli populated by the Azerbaijani community during his visits to Georgia. He said Azerbaijani President urged him to visit this region. Minister Mammadyarov answered the questions of the representatives of public community. He said relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan were in undesirable level. â€œWe have discussed the Karabakh issue in Moscow recently. The occupied territories are the biggest problem. Unfortunately some issues remained unresolved during the three-hour meeting of Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian foreign ministers in Moscow on June 11.
But there was a progress in some issues. The Kazan meeting between the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian presidents will show the level of negotiations. I believe it will clarify whether Armenians are playing a game or not. The presidents of U.S., Russia and France, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries, make their third joint statement on Karabakh issue. It shows that current situation is completely unacceptable. No one accepts this status quo. Of course, we have to start the liberation of the occupied territories. Armenian troops must be withdrawn from the occupied territories, all communications and roads must be restored and opened. After that the status of Nagorno Karabakh can be determinedâ€.

Minister said Nagorno Karabakh is a part of Azerbaijan.
â€œAzerbaijanâ€™s territorial integrity and sovereignty must be restored. It is too difficult to restore it within a day. This is a phase-by-phase process. First of all we must achieve the withdrawal of the Armenian troops from the occupied territories. Therefore, we must continue and complete the process, we must not allow this process to last for a hundred years. The international community demands on the level of Russian and American presidents that the status quo must be changed. I believe that now we have opportunities. We can achieve it,â€ he said.

Elmar Mammadyarov said every time when he visits Marneuli he sees that the problems of the Azerbaijanis reduced.
â€œStability in Georgia favors the interests of Azerbaijan. All great projects pass through this country,â€ he said.

Azerbaijani ambassador to Georgia, Georgian ambassador to Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani members of the Georgian parliament, NGO and media representatives attended the meeting.