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Elmar Mammadyarov delivers speech at annual coordination meeting of foreign ministers of member states of Organization of Islamic Cooperation

26 September 2011 08:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry made a speech at the Annual Coordination Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Member States of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation within 66th session of the UN Security Council, Press service of the Foreign Ministry told APA that the in his speech, minister said that we live in a time historical essence of which is characterized by contradictions in social, cultural and political processes: â€œAnalytical judgment sometimes lags behind the tempo and dynamics of those processes.Our globalization world has been rapidly changing. Consequently the world order and the system of International Relations are changing as well. Political events that occur nowadays at the different regions of the world are capable of changing the geopolitical picture of any given region. These events happen with such a lightening speed that events go beyond the might of powerful countries and there lies the very nature of globalizationâ€.

Minister said that there were certain regions that are very sensitive to the geopolitical processes: â€œRecent political processes currently taking place in the Near and the Middle East region demonstrated the fragility of peace and stability to the international community. Azerbaijan encourages all Member States to maintain their efforts to achieve settlement of the conflicts in the Islamic world based on the norms and principles of international law. We remain concerned over the situation in Palestine. Azerbaijan reiterates its strong support to brotherly people of Palestine and their efforts to achieve peace, stability, and establishment of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital and fully support Palestine aspiration to be a full-fledged member of the United Nationsâ€.

He said that Azerbaijan was deeply concerned with the humanitarian situation in brotherly Somali. Horrible famine and drought affected vast parts of the country, resulting tens of thousands of deaths and massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Somalians to neighboring countries. According to latest UN report some 12 million people still remain in crisis, with 750000 people in dire risk of death. This is an unprecedented tragedy that humanity had faced in the last 100 years. In this regard we have to realize the full potential of the OIC and the Muslim states to provide so badly needed aid and assistance to prevent humanitarian disaster in Somali. Azerbaijan has already provided humanitarian aid to this brotherly countryâ€.

Mammadyarov said that the UN Security Council reform presents significant concern to all Member States: â€œThe OIC has a legitimate demand for being represented in the Security Council to defend and promote the interests of Muslim countries. We support comprehensive reform of the Security Council to make it more representative, democratic, effective, transparent and accountable to the UN Members.

In this regards, I am pleased to inform the distinguished colleagues that Azerbaijan has put forward its candidacy for a non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council, for the term of 2012-2013, at the elections to be held in 2011 at the 66th session of the UN General Assembly. Proceeding from the importance of representing the OIC in the Security Council we rely on the continued support by the Member States to the candidacy of Azerbaijanâ€.

Minister also expressed Azerbaijanâ€™s sincere gratitude to the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation and the OIC Secretary General for their support to the just cause of Azerbaijan in the ongoing armed conflict with Armenia as a result of which almost twenty percent of Azerbaijanâ€™s territory is presently under occupation by Armenia, around one million Azerbaijanis have been ethnically cleansed from their native lands, and thousands of Azerbaijani cultural and historical monuments, including of Islamic heritage were devastated and looted:

â€œNumerous OIC decisions and resolutions on the aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan and support of the OIC Member States have been instrumental in addressing the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan by the international community, in particular by the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.

The Government of Azerbaijan remains committed to the peaceful settlement of this protracted conflict based on the respect for the norms and principles of international law, implementation of the relevant UN Security Council and OIC resolutions as well as appropriate documents and decisions adopted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Council of Europe and European Parliamentâ€.