Azerbaijani independent MP and member of the delegation at the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Summit, Asaf Hajiyev, said the following to journalists at the Armenian National Assembly:
“At first, the Armenian side had gone along with European Council’s proposal to have the Armenian troops leave the six regions and allocate peacekeeping troops. However, they refused. I think that that was a good proposal.”
He added that the Armenian people didn’t start the Karabagh conflict.
“Armenian political figures are to blame for that; the people and the political figures are totally different.”
According to the Azerbaijani delegate, it was good for Serbia and Chernogorya to separate, but Armenians believe that Karabagh is a part of Armenia and that is just absurd. In response to the question as to whether the 1000-year old church in Shushi is absurd or not, he said:
“The church is still not part of the state”.
He then repeated what Ilham Aliev had said in Bucharest.
“Armenia keeps mentioning the national self-determination right, but can you imagine having 300,000 Armenians from Los Angeles suddenly decide to self-determine?”
According to “A1+”, Hajiyev hasn’t lost hope for the conflict resolution, although he doesn’t know the details of the Bucharest meeting.
“I don’t have any information, but I still have hope. Let’s hope that our presidents come to terms and establish peace in the region. If neither the Armenian nor Azerbaijani parliamentarians believe in the conflict resolution, if the Armenian president doesn’t believe in it, then what’s the point of holding talks? There has to be a desire and faith; that’s when we will get closer to the resolution,” said Hajiyev.
In regard to possible economic cooperation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Hajiyev said that there is no point in talking about that while the Karabagh conflict remains unresolved.
“There will be economic ties if the Karabagh conflict is resolved. Today, it’s a fact that Armenia and Azerbaijan are in a war and we can’t talk about any cooperation. Imagine post-World War II Germany asking Russia to forget everything and start economic cooperation. How would Russia, or any country for that matter, accept this? There can be no economic cooperation as long as the two countries are in war.”