Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan and Turkey’s strong resistance to France's adoption of a law criminalizing denial of the alleged "Armenian genocide" and joint efforts to condemn the Khojaly genocide of Azerbaijanis were welcomed by the two countries’ presidents, an Azerbaijani presidential aide told Trend news agency Monday.

"Last week, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was interviewed by Turkish television and conveyed the Azerbaijani government's gratitude to the Turkish public, all social and political figures for their support for holding the remembrance ceremonies of Khojaly genocide victims," said Ali Hasanov, the Presidential Administration's head of social and political issues. "It was stressed during these events that Turkey and Azerbaijan are two fraternal countries serving common goals and interests. The peoples of these countries represent a single nation… They act together, as it was until today."

On February 25-26, 1992, Armenian armed forces invaded Khojaly, a town located in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh region. During the attack, 613 people, including underage children and women, were brutally killed and hundreds of others disabled. 1,275 people were captured, including 150 whose fate is still unknown, and 5,379 people were ousted from their homes.

According to Hasanov, during the interview President Aliyev informed about the work done by the Azerbaijani government to repeal the anti-Turkish law passed by the French Senate. The concerted effort of the two countries yielded a positive result, he added.

Hasanov said that on Saturday Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan phoned the Azerbaijani president and thanked him for all these efforts.

Ankara believes that the Azerbaijani government and community in the world, the Azerbaijani parliament, President Aliyev and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, have great merits in preventing France's adoption of the law on Armenian "genocide", he said.

After an appeal sent by a group of French Senate members, the French Constitutional Council repealed the Armenian "genocide" law, which had been approved by both houses of parliament. The law would have imposed a 45,000-euro fine, a one-year prison sentence, or both, on deniers of the "genocide" that allegedly occurred in Ottoman Turkey in 1915-1923. It was due to be ratified by President Nicolas Sarkozy by the end of February.

"The Azerbaijani president and the Turkish prime minister have exchanged views on further joint activity to inform the international community about other problems of the Turkic world and their international recognition," Hasanov added.