Azerbaijan has passed a long way of development and achieved great success. We consider that it is not important to have the OSCE project coordinator`s office in Baku anymore. Azerbaijan’s path of development in human rights, security and other fields and its achievements show that there is no need for such an office, Bahar Muradova, head of the Azerbaijani Delegation to the OSCE PA, vice-speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament, told while commenting on recent tension in the OSCE-Azerbaijan relations.
Muradova noted that as a member state, Azerbaijan’s position on this issue should be taken into account.
“Some member countries think that Azerbaijan should resume the operation of the office under the decision of 57 member states, though there are not OSCE offices in those countries, they don’t let observation missions to enter their countries and don’t observe the recommendations of the OSCE. We regard this approach as wrong. Azerbaijan itself raised the issue of opening a new project coordinator`s office. The member states accepted this proposal. Now, Azerbaijan appealed those member states to close the office. They will make a decision in this regard. Of course, our decision should be taken into account,” she added.
The vice-speaker said that the closure of the office won’t deteriorate Azerbaijan-OSCE relations.
“As for the OSCE Minsk Group’s being the only mediator in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the affect of the closure of the office to the processes, the OSCE’s role in the conflict’s settlement is obvious, and its positions has been repeatedly criticized by Azerbaijan. If the operation of the office had an impact on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, then the issue would have been resolved up today. The occupation of a member country’s territory by another member country is contrary to the basic principles of the OSCE. If there has been no progress up to now, the closure of the office won’t bring any major changes. As for the partnership with the OSCE, we are not going to suspend it. We don’t consider appropriate the activity of the office in Azerbaijan. However, we continue the cooperation with the OSCE office in Vienna. Azerbaijan has a representative there, and most importantly, it is a member of the OSCE PA. Simply, we don’t need a project coordinator, because Azerbaijan is able to realize these projects independently.
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