Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

An international conference, "Building Bridges", was held in Baku last week and attended by a number of former senior European officials and other distinguished guests.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met a group of the conference participants last Thursday.

The participants included former president of the European Commission Jacques Santer, former French secretary of state for transport Thierry Mariani, former Turkish prime minister Mesut Yilmaz, former Dutch defense minister Willem van Eekelen, Slovenia`s former foreign minister, member of European Parliament Ivo Vajgl, former economic development minister of Slovenia Mitja Gaspari, former minister of transportation and infrastructure of Germany Kurt Bodewig, prince of Denmark Christian zu Schaumburg-Lippe and chairman of the Board of Institute for European Affairs Jurgen Gramke.

President Aliyev stressed the importance of the conference. He said building bridges was among key priorities in Azerbaijan's foreign policy in the region and in the world as a whole. He said mutual understanding had to be based only on mutual trust and mutual respect.

President Aliyev also spoke of the successful reforms carried out in Azerbaijan, and praised the country's cooperation with European organizations.

Aliyev said Azerbaijan had made a contribution to the cooperation with Euro-Atlantic organizations, adding that last year the country became a member of the UN Security Council.

The president also touched upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, stressing that Yerevan does not honor resolutions of the UN Security Council demanding an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

"The situation is indeed very dangerous and it can't last forever. However, the Armenians don't want to change the situation, they try to strengthen the status-quo."

Chairman of the Board of the Institute for European Affairs (INEA), Jurgen Gramke, emphasized the importance of the "Building bridges" conference, organized by the Association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan (AVCIYA) and INEA.

The two-day conference was held in a suburb of Baku at Jumeirah Bilgah Beach Hotel last Thursday and Friday.

The conference was attended by European and Azerbaijani top officials and parliamentarians and their individual positions can be seen as the views and approaches of the official bodies on European integration issues.

The dividing line between the parties went through the European principles of values and conditions that the Azerbaijani side has advanced as an important precursor of transforming the country into a democratic state.

At the first panel, a key meeting, "Cooperation on the way to Europe", ex-president of the European Commission, Jacques Santer, and former State Minister of the Netherlands Van Eekelen Willy spoke about individual liberty and human rights as a platform to promote Azerbaijan in Europe, but Deputy Chairman of Parliament, Bahar Muradova and Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev linked conducting European reforms with Karabakh conflict settlement within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Chairman of AVCIYA, MP Elkhan Suleymanov, in his keynote speech, spoke about the democratization process in Azerbaijan in recent years and cooperation with Europe.

He said that the Nagorno Karabakh problem is not a conflict, but an aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan and the occupation of the neighboring country's territories. Criticizing the activity of international organizations, Suleymanov said the mediating OSCE Minsk Group has done nearly nothing for the solution of the conflict during its activity in the past 20 years.

Professor Jurgen Gramke said in his speech that Europe has little information about Azerbaijan. "Today's event will be a very good step forward," he added.