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Elkhan Suleymanov: â€œOur proposal on holding of EURONEST PA session in Baku will be reconsidered in Septemberâ€ - INTERVIEW

Elkhan Suleymanov: â€œOur proposal on holding of EURONEST PA session in Baku will be reconsidered in Septemberâ€ - <font color=red>INTERVIEW</font>

02 July 2011 09:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Head of Azerbaijani delegation in EURONEST Parliament Assembly and vice-president of assembly Elkhan Suleymanovâ€™s interview to APA

- We ask you to inform about the issues discussed at the meeting of EURONEST Parliament Assembly Bureau on June 21.

- Several important issues have been discussed at the bureau meeting. Itâ€™s possible to come to such conclusion by systemizing the issues on the agenda, the meeting was aimed to organizational and technical issues, as well create activity schedule on preparation to East Partnership Summit on September 29-30, in Warsaw. The organizational issues - chairmanship to working group on Rules of Procedure, issues on holding of EURONEST PA next plenary session, technical issues â€“logo of the organization were discussed at the meeting. Besides, preparatory works for East Partnership Summit were discussed. At the same time, opinions were exchanged with EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, Mr. Stefan Fule.

- Though, the EURONEST PAâ€™s all structures were organized practically during the constituent assembly, the chairmanship issue to working group on Rules of Procedure was delayed. Heads of Azerbaijani and Armenian delegation were elected co-chairmen to this working group at the Bureau meeting. What do you think it is connected with?

The working group on Rules of Procedure has been established for a year and term of its functioning may be prolonged by the offering of bureau on the basis of assemblyâ€™s decision. Working group is aimed to control the implementation of Rules of Procedure by assembly and its structures. The working group can also submit proposals to the bureau for stimulation of making the amendments in Rules of Procedure. These were caused by the fact that, PA and its structures have been established newly, theyâ€™re at the stage of gaining experience to improve their functioning. As it seems, he working group on Rules of Procedure is an important structure of EURONEST PA and it was principally for who would elected chairman. Armenian side offered the distributing of chairmanship to the working group among Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia during a year, thereafter between Moldova and Georgia if its functioning is prolonged. But, we could not consider it acceptable, because of chairmanship from Armenia does not meet the interests of Azerbaijan. Thatâ€™s why, we made two proposals noting the unacceptable of discrimination against Moldova and Georgia. First proposal consisted of election of chairman from other countries excluding Armenian and Azerbaijan. It should be noted that, we predicted beforehand that, Armenian would not agree with this proposal. Thatâ€™s why, taking this situation into consideration, we made the second proposal on chairmanship of Azerbaijan and Armenia to the working group in the letter that we sent to the bureau members. Consequently, chairmanships of Azerbaijan and Armenia were put to vote and adopted.

- But, decision on holding of EURONEST session in 2012, in Azerbaijan was not adoptedâ€¦

- According to 7th article of Rules of Procedure, the Parliament Assembly is convened by co-presidents and the assembly sessions are held in one of the Eastern European Partner countries and buildings of European Parliament, in a year. Armenian delegation made proposal to hold the session in Yerevan during the days of 20th anniversary of Armenia â€“ at the end of September. We immediately expressed our opinion to this issue noted that, the proposal was unacceptable. We said in our letter that, Armenia has occupied 20% territory of our country during the first years of its independence. So far, Armenia has not taken any step about returning of IDPs to their lands and liberation of Azerbaijani territories. If we attend the events on 20th anniversary of Armeniaâ€™s state independency and PA bureau meeting and plenary session are held in Armenia on the same eve, weâ€™ll promote the violation of thousands of human rights.

Certainly, Armenian side understood that their proposals would not be accepted after our letter and even publicized this issue in the media before the bureau meeting. Thatâ€™s why, it was decided to hold the PA next session on 14-15 September, in Strasbourg.

- Azerbaijani side also had proposal on holding of one of the EURONEST PA session in Baku.

Itâ€™s true, it was made a proposal on holding of PA next session in May, 2012, in Baku and this issue was put to vote. During the voting, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia and Co-Chairman of the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly Christian Vigenin supported this. Armenia, members of bureau Polish Deputy Saryuj-Volsky and Romanian deputy Traian Ungureanu voted against. Consequently, it was decided to discuss and put to vote this issue in September, 2011, Strasbourg, due to not gaining of 2/3 majority of votes. THE final decision was not adopted yet and I hope that this issue will be settled.