The French Senate held a round-table conference of Armenia and Azerbaijan on their conflict, initiated by the Azerbaijani embassy, APA reports.
The sides discussed activities of the OSCE Minsk Group and the role of French co-chair Bernard Fassier. Senator of Orn, Natalie Gule, Azerbaijani Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to France Elchin Amirbekov, representative of the Azerbaijani community in Nagorno-Karabakh MP Rovshan Rzayev, chairman of the French-Azerbaijani friendship group in the National Assembly of France Jean Louis Dumon and French co-chair Bernard Fassier made speeches.
Natalie Gule said that the conflict is not clear enough for Europe. She underlined the need to study the conflict more in more details.
Rovshan Rzayev said that the Azerbaijani community in Nagorno-Karabakh is ready to renew dialogue with the Armenian community for peace. But the Armenian community showed no interest in dialogue with its refusal to arrive for the meeting in Berlin.
Bernard Fassier spoke about initiatives proposed in the last years. He noted that the OSCE Minsk Group started work in May 1994 and started realizing its decisions after 1997. Every version of the document developed since 2005 is under consideration. Fassier expressed understanding of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, but added that blaming the Minsk Group for inactivity is wrong. None of the sides could be forced to make a decision, they need to come to a consensus. The war may restart at any moment. The sides are negotiating the problem. Russia should not be left with resolving the conflict in the South Caucasus alone. France and the US are supporting it.
Concerning the Madrid principles of 2007, Fassier noted that the Kazan talks came to a stalemate. Negotiations may be renewed after a joint declaration in Vilnius in January. Fassier also reminded that Jacques Faure will replace him as the new co-chair of France. Faure was working with the Warsaw Pact Organization in Soviet times.
Farhad Badalbeyli, a member of the Azerbaijani community in the Nagorno-Karabakh, head of the Azerbaijani Music Academy, Pierre Cones, an analyst from the Institute of International and Strategic Studies in Paris, Antoine Constan, a French historian, and Anar Usubov, a member of the Center for Efficient Initiatives, made speeches at the round-table conference entitled “the Forgotten Conflict”.
