Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

The VII General Assembly of the International Conference of Asia Political Parties (ICAPP), held in Baku last week, adopted a declaration supporting Azerbaijan's stance in its long-standing conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The declaration said the assembly supports Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and the UN Security Council's resolutions, which call for an unconditional pullout of Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijani territories occupied since a brutal war fought between the two neighboring countries in the early 1990s.

"Azerbaijan's territorial integrity must not be violated," the declaration said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's land since the war, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. A precarious ceasefire was signed in 1994, but OSCE-brokered peace talks have been mostly fruitless so far.

ICAPP also said it supports the efforts to ensure the rule of law in the volatile South Caucasus region.

The organization greeted the Azerbaijani leadership and the ruling Yeni (New) Azerbaijan party's position on promoting peace, reconciliation and security in the region.

During the event, which opened last Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was elected Chairman of the Seventh General Assembly.

As a tradition, Chairman of the previous ICAPP General Assembly, Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia, symbolically passed the chairmanship to President Aliyev's representative, the head of Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, Ramiz Mehdiyev.

Mehdiyev conveyed President Aliyev's greetings to the conference participants.

About 200 representatives from 35 countries attended the VII General Assembly of ICAPP.

Deputy chairman of the Yeni Azerbaijan Party, Ali Ahmadov, said at the opening of the event that ICAPP is becoming an authoritative organization in the present-day world and contributes to addressing problems of the Asian region and the whole world.

He noted that Azerbaijan has been an independent state for only 21 years, however, it has already achieved dynamic development, and the country's economy has tripled.

"At the same time, for more than twenty years now, 20 percent of the country's territories have been under occupation, and the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unresolved. The International Conference of Asian Political Parties should contribute to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Ahmadov said.

Ahmadov also called for establishing a youth forum and an organization of women members of various political parties within ICAPP.

He said further that development of relations with ICAPP is one of the main directions in YAP's foreign relations.

YAP is among 21 parties included in the Board of the Conference.

The Assembly discussed security, peace and cooperation in Asia.

According to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's welcoming letter to the meeting participants, the seventh ICAPP assembly is an important opportunity to achieve mutual understanding.

"This meeting is an important opportunity to build bridges of mutual understanding that can lead to a future stability, prosperity and freedom," Ban Ki-moon's letter said.

The UN chief stressed that he was pleased to send greetings to the international conference and thanked the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party for hosting the meeting.

He wrote that this format has grown into an important forum for dialogue and coordination in bringing together government, opposition and independent voices across the region.

Ban Ki-moon said conflict and misunderstanding make it harder to mobilize global cooperation and the member states need to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by protecting human rights and addressing common threats like extremism and climate change.

"The UN will continue to be your partner in various issues -- from energy to education, from conflict prevention to disaster risk reduction," the letter says.

Former Philippine Parliament Speaker Jose de Venecia said that Azerbaijan is a mature, successful and democratic country.

He said there are a lot of political parties in Azerbaijan, which indicates that democracy has been established in the country.

De Venecia stressed that President Ilham Aliyev successfully continues late national leader Heydar Aliyev's policy.

Stressing that the poverty level in Azerbaijan has been reduced over a short period to six per cent, De Venecia said shifting this part of the population to a category which is considered middle class is one of the country's great achievements.

"Azerbaijan will raise the level of the whole Caucasus by its development," he said. "This is the result of Azerbaijan's influence."

Referring to the ICAPP challenges, the former Philippine speaker said it is necessary to create a union of Asian people. "We are close to getting that done, but still have not managed to solve this issue," he added.

Former Bangladeshi President Hussain Muhammad Ershad in his speech urged the international community and ICAPP to condemn the escalation of tension in the Middle East.

"There's nothing new in instability in the Middle East, but new initiatives are proposals for peace and security provision and creation of conditions for reconciliation in the region," Ershad said.

According to him, the people of Palestine have suffered for a long time and they deserve support of their neighbors and ICAPP to live in peace.

"The people of Israel also deserve peace. I hope that peace and security will prevail in the region," Ershad said.

Last Wednesday, a cease-fire was agreed between Israel and Hamas after eight days of fighting, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr said at a press conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Leader of the Russian Communist Party and member of the State Duma Gennady Zyuganov said that the Assembly was being held in Baku amid a new wave of a global crisis, which involves almost 200 countries.

"The topic is very important," he said. "This is [about] peace, security and reconciliation amid the situation in the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan today. I think that a very serious conversation on how to get out of this complicated crisis will be held in Baku. I would like to recall that there were 12 severe crises over 150 years of capitalism. Two of them resulted in the two world wars in the last century."

ICAPP, the forum of political parties of Asia-Oceanian countries, was launched in Manila, Philippines in September 2000. The main objectives of the conference are to promote exchanges and cooperation between political parties from different countries in the area and with various ideologies; to enhance mutual understanding and trust among Asian countries; to promote Asia's regional cooperation; and to create an environment for sustained peace in the region.