Mr. Droutsas: So, we were very happy today to welcome our very good friend and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr. Elmar Mammadyarov.
Those who follow the development of our bilateral relations, I am sure will have realized that our bilateral contacts are becoming more and more frequent in the recent past.
The Foreign Minister and myself had a bilateral meeting in September, in New York, during the UN General Assembly and in December our Prime Minister, George Papandreou, met with the President of Azerbaijan, during the OSCE Summit. Of course, the competent Deputy Minister for Foreign Economic Relations, Mr. Kouvelis, has met with his colleagues during the Joint Interministerial Committee Meeting for Economic Cooperation which was convened recently. I am describing all these contacts in order to show you the impetus of our relations, which are sincere: they are constantly growing and their scope is enlarging.
This is not happening by chance. Both our countries hold very important positions in the wider Black Sea area and our economies are complementary. We also belong to the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization and we have been promoting our relations in the fields of energy, trade, tourism and finance and many others. There are many emerging opportunities in all these fields.
I would especially like to stress one very important point: cooperation in the field of energy. Our Azerbaijani friends are very well aware of our commitment, of our strong commitment to the gas pipeline, which will join Azerbaijan with Italy via Turkey, the well known ITGI pipeline, which is a mature project and which is becoming even more attractive in view of the prospect of the branch that will go via Bulgaria, the GBI branch.
We also discussed issues related to regional and international developments. I had the opportunity to inform my colleague about certain issues which are important to Greece. We have certainly discussed developments in Northern Africa and especially in Libya.
In relation to this last point allow me, dear Elmar, to say a few more words about this, because yesterday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Ministry for Citizen Protection completed an extremely difficult operation. They repatriated Greek citizens from Libya via air and sea and in a very successful manner. Of course some Greek citizens are still there and we will not stop until everyone has been repatriated. With this opportunity, I would like to congratulate Deputy Minister Dollis, the Secretary General of the Ministry Ambassador Zepos, as well as all those officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense who acted in a very competent, professional and selfless manner in performing their patriotic duty.
Let me also mention another tragic event which has taken place in recent hours. We have had an unfortunate road accident in Turkey. The bus which covers the daily route between Istanbul and Thessaloniki has left the road and there have been casualties. We express our deep sympathy to the families of the victims and of course, a part of our consulate staff is there to help them.
So, my dear Elmar, once again I would like to welcome you here. We are very happy to receive you here. We will soon have an official visit by our President of the Republic, Mr. Karolos Papoulias, to Azerbaijan.
Mr. Mammadyarov: Thank you. Thank you very much Dimitris. It’s a great pleasure to be back to Athens, which I believe is an indication of our closer relations on a daily and monthly basis, between Azerbaijan and the Hellenic Republic.
Last year my President visited Athens, on an official visit. This year, at the beginning of April, we are expecting that the President of Greece will visit Azerbaijan in return.
The relations between Azerbaijan and Greece, I can assess that they are going quite well and particularly when we are talking about the economic and energy field.
At least the gas, the natural gas from Azerbaijan is already on the Greek market and it’s 700 million cubic meters and we are also talking on the level of companies about the possibility of expanding this figure.
The Greek market, the Greek gas market, is very important for us, because Greece is the first country, member state of the European Union, where the natural gas from the Caspian basin is coming directly. And through my negotiations and talks today with the Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. Papandreou, I believe that we have a big future for that.
I want to express my appreciation to Dimitris for his briefing me about the issues which are of interest to the Hellenic Republic, and I also briefed my colleague about the challenges and problems being faced by Azerbaijan, in particular the ongoing negotiations on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
As far as my reading of the situation, the addressing of the different issues of mutual interest, of Greece and Azerbaijan, it’s almost the same. And I believe that we will move in not only the economic field and cooperation, but also on the humanitarian level of our cooperation.
And I believe that we have a huge potential on that.
Thank you.
Journalist: You expressed concern at the situation in Libya. How, in your opinion, might the tension be reduced there, and whether you think the proposals for a no fly zone and other operations of a military nature, regarding the humanitarian role, might help the situation.
Mr. Droutsas: Our first goal was the safe return of all the Greek citizens who were in Libya. This was our primary goal. Now, of course, we want to see an immediate end to the violence we are seeing in Libya; to see stability return to Libya and the whole region.
This is Greece’s immediate neighbourhood. Security issues play a very important role for us in the region. Stability is also linked to the economic development of our country. There is the issue that we pointed out from the very outset, when we saw developments not just in Libya, but also in other Arab countries, earlier – like Tunisia, Egypt – that there is a risk of migration flows toward Europe, and through Greece, as well.
We noted this from the very outset within the framework of the European Union. And yesterday and the day before, Mr. Papoutsis had the opportunity at a special meeting with his Mediterranean counterparts to discuss this issue, and we also raised it at Monday’s GAC.
And we said that the European Union has to take a comprehensive view; that all of the countries of the EU need to contribute to confronting this, including through economic support, if need be. So, we are conferring constantly with all of our partners in and outside the EU to see what the next steps will be: how we can help and guarantee stability and calm in the immediate region, and in Libya in particular.
Mr. Mammadyarov: On Libya, just a few words, with Dimitris we discussed in detail, because we are doing the same airlift for our citizens who are working in Libya – it’s not an easy process. I talked today, this morning, with our Ambassador to Tripoli, and we still have a few citizens who are not in the central part or the capitals, but working outside of the cities and, believe me, what Dimitris said, that it’s not easy, how to get these people out of the country.
Mr. Droutsas: Allow me just to add a few words: that this crisis and the developments we are seeing – particularly in Libya – indicate once again the particular importance of Greece in the region. And I am referring here in particular to the fact that third countries – large countries, like China – came to Greece and entrusted Greece with this operation for evacuating their citizens from Libya. And, as you know, this is being done via Crete, with a very serious operational program that is being coordinated by the Foreign Ministry, in cooperation, of course, with the Chinese side. I just want to stress again that these developments point up the special role Greece can play and is playing in dealing with these developments.
Journalist: The war in Armenia ended in 1992, about 20 years ago. Nevertheless, there are constant clashes on the borders between the two countries, with victims from Karabakh and Azerbaijan via soldiers. Karabakh is an independent republic, but unfortunately it has not yet been recognized. Azerbaijan, through President Ilham Aliyev, continues daily, through warmongering statements, to stoke the flames of conflict. Is this a policy of peace? Is it a development policy? Thank you.
Mr. Mammadyarov: Is it a statement or is it a question? Ok, let me brief you in this regard, on the history of what we are talking about, negotiations with Armenia with regard to the settlement of the conflict.
The conflict was not stopped in 1992. There was a cease fire which was in 1994. Where they stopped, between the army of Armenia military forces and Azerbaijan military forces, which closed the line of contact. In 1993, during the hot phase of conflict, the United Nations Security Council adopted four resolutions. All four resolutions of United Nations Security Council – which is the major body for maintaining international peace and security in the world – called for withdrawal of the Armenian troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, a stop to ethnic cleansing; that is, ethnic cleansing of all the occupied territories from Azerbaijani population, including Nagorno-Karabakh, and fully recognized the territorial integrity, sovereignty and internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh. Starting from 1992, we started negotiations with Armenia, within the OSCE Minsk Group. In 1997, the Minsk Group created the co-chairmanship with United States, Russian Federation and France.
Then, through the old years of the co-chairmanship negotiations there was a different plan. Unfortunately the shootings in the Armenian Parliament, killing of the speaker, the vice-speaker, Minister of Defense and of the other high officials do not allow a move on the peace process, in the settlement process.
In 2004 we started in Prague negotiations on the level of Foreign Ministers of Armenia-Azerbaijan with the mediation of the three co-chairs, United States, Russia, and France; the so-called Prague process.
After four years almost of very intensive negotiations, co-chairs in 2007 in Madrid during the OSCE Ministerial presented in writing the proposals for the settlement of the conflict. These are the basic principles for the settlement, which should be a basis upon which we are going to build the peace agreement.
Again after the very intensive negotiations in Athens, here, in 2009, during the OSCE Ministerial, the co-chairs presented an updated version of the Madrid documents. The updated Madrid documents presented in Athens followed very intensive discussions on the level of Presidents, because in Armenia there was a new administration.
In 2010, after carefully examining what was proposed by the three co-chairs, Azerbaijan announced that in principle we agree that this is a good basis, that we can start working on the big peace treaty. Unfortunately, the Armenian side said that they needed additional time for the assessment of these documents and to decide whether to accept it as a basis.
And then comes the key, what is the plan. The plan is that Armenia should withdraw all the troops from all surrounding territories of NK. Around Nagorno-Karabakh. Which allows opening of all communications and roads. Deploy, as a security measure, peacekeeper observers, create the opportunity for more confidence-building measures and peoples to peoples contact, allowing the internally displaced people who are ethnically cleansed to return back to their homes, providing to the Armenian community together with Azerbaijan community, of NK interim status. And then, when the real normal situation will be established as a stable situation of development of the country, definition of the final legal status of NK.
It is not as you said. It is impossible, when you ethnically cleanse territory to say we just start self-determining ourselves. It is the decision of the people who are living there together. And, of course, this is the way, how we believe that we will have enough arguments to convince the Armenian population of Azerbaijan who are living now in Nagorno-Karabakh that it is better for their future and for their lives to live in prosperity, in stability and it is good for their kids.
That is how we see development. It is not building a new wall or a new line of division, it is not the way of the future. This is the way which we should not proceed. The way, the only way, is to diminish the threats and risks and challenges for the security in our volatile South Caucasus region. And I strongly believe that we are going to achieve this goal.
Thank you.
Mr. Droutsas: Allow me to say a couple words on this subject. At our meeting today, I had the opportunity to be briefed by Mr. Mammadyarov on Azerbaijan’s positions and all of the recent developments. And, as you know, Greece is dedicated to and has very strong respect for the principles of international law. And within this framework we support the mediating efforts of the Minsk Group, looking forward, of course, to a peaceful resolution of the problem. I believe that dialogue is always imperative when there are differing views. Azerbaijan plays a key role in a region of critical importance to Europe, and we will continue to collaborate to promote security and stability in the Southern Caucasus and throughout the OSCE region.
Thank you very much.
February 25, 2011