Karabakh conflict is regarded as an obstacle to European integration of Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijan-European two-day international conference "Building Bridges" has demonstrated the existence of differences in the approaches of European integration of Azerbaijan.

The conference, held on Thursday in a suburb of Baku at Jumeirah Bilgah Beach, was attended by the  European and Azerbaijani top level officials and parliamentarians,  and their individual positions can still be presented as the views and approaches of official circles  on the 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," the ex-president of the European Commission, Jacques Santer, and former State Minister of the Netherlands Van Eekelen Willy spoke  about individual liberty, human rights, as a kind of platform to promote Azerbaijan to Europe; but  Deputy Chairman of the Parliament, Bahar Muradova, Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammedguliev, linked the  conducting  European reforms with Karabakh conflict within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani side was talking about  double standards, accusing the European Parliament and other EU institutions in the contradictory approaches to similar conflicts in the South Caucasus. "The EU recognizes Russia's occupation of Georgia and insists on their release, but the EU does not demand the liberation of Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia with the support of Russia," said MP Fazil Mustafa.

Santer said that the European Parliament recognized the fact of occupation of Azerbaijani territories, and Van Eekelen Willen advised to change approaches to deadlock conflict, that is, to bring something new to the negotiation process, and to go a roundabout alternative  the ways of conflict resolution.

Former Turkish Prime Minister, Masud Yilmaz, also reminded Europeans of double standards, adding to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, a long-term, protracted unsuccessful topic of Turkey’s joining the EU. He also noted that the establishment of normal relations with Armenia,  in which Ankara was interested, is through  the liberation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. "We are sister nations, and we will not retreat from this position," he said.

Bilateral discussions have shown that the sides are sensitive to each other's positions, but still European envoys made it clear that value systems remain a priority, and everything  will depend on the speed with which Azerbaijan will move. Then one of the organizers of the conference, President of the Association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan, Elkhan Suleymanov said that in Europe, trains move at a speed of 150-300 km/h, and in Azerbaijan - 60-80 km/h , and it will take time to rebuild Azerbaijan’s economy.—0—