Samad Seyidov, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said during a conversation with www.aravot.am, “Only the path of dialogue and communication can lead to settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and we are for that. I have said many times – there are worthy people among Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and there are worthy people among Nagorno-Karabakh Azerbaijanis. OK, we don’t want to meet at the PACE. Let us bring them –Armenians and Azerbaijanis from Nagorno-Karabakh who lived in Karabakh and are also citizens – here and let them talk. Well, we cannot find common ground, but those people have lived together for decades, centuries, perhaps they will find a common language, why do we, politicians, interfere in their business? Those are two communities, which lived there, in Nagorno-Karabakh – one
of them lives, the other is deported. Ugh, let us meet them here, let them meet with each other, why not? Why can’t an Armenian from Nagorno-Karabakh meet with an Azerbaijani from Nagorno-Karabakh?”
So it turns out you recognize or accept to a certain extent the independent existence of Nagorno-Karabakh, whereas Azerbaijan’s viewpoint so far has been that the conflict is between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In response to this question of ours, Seyidov said, “No, it doesn’t turn out. You make the same mistake that your journalists make. Those are people. We don’t interfere in the negotiation process. You have entered the Minsk Group with your question now. And I have been saying for half an hour let us not interfere in the Minsk Group, let us talk about concrete people who live in Nagorno-Karabakh today, who have been driven away from Nagorno-Karabakh, why shouldn’t those people meet with each other and discuss? I am a parliamentarian, I am for communication between the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Naira MAMIKONYAN
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