President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is attending the seventh OSCE summit, which commenced here on Wednesday.
The summit brings together Heads of State and Government from the 56 OSCE participating States and 12 Partner countries as well as representatives from other international and regional organizations.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev welcomed heads of delegations including Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the Palace of Independence.
Prior to the summit, President Ilham Aliyev met with German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, Presidents Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine, and Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan.
The summit started with opening remarks of President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.
He called on the member states to adopt a declaration in support of a world free from nuclear weapons. Nazarbayev pointed out the summit serves a forum for discussing of situation in Afghanistan, illegal migration, threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, global economic crisis and other important issues.
Nazarbayev proposed establishment of the economic forum and addition of a Maastricht plus document to the Maastricht strategy. The Kazakh leader also called on the summit participants to work on the tolerance-related document in the coming decade.
The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Kazakhstan's Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev, urged the participating States to "show the wisdom and courage of true leaders and reach consensus on the important issue of strengthening security and co-operation".
Saudabayev underlined the work done to solve long-standing conflicts creates a basis for optimism. Saudabayev noted although Lithuania is set to take over chairmanship, Kazakhstan will remain an active participant of the OSCE.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said there is more need to establish peace and security in the world. According to him, long-standing conflicts, which expect peaceful and negotiated resolution, still continue to exist in the region of OSCE. He expressed hope that joint cooperation would open up opportunities for solving existing problems. Ban Ki-moon expressed satisfaction with UN-OSCE cooperation, adding both organizations share the stance on prevention and resolution of existing conflicts and global threats
President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Mr. Petros Efthymiou said "this Summit, the first OSCE event of such magnitude in eleven years."
He said the Parliamentary Assembly is concerned over existence of protracted conflicts in the member states.
OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, addressing the Heads of State, underscored the need for addressing all dimensions of the OSCE's comprehensive security concept in the discussions: "I urge you to use this historic opportunity to give a fresh start to arms control discussions, improve early warning and confidence-building measures, bolster efforts to resolve protracted conflicts, work together to tackle transnational threats, and enhance co-operation in addressing economic and environmental challenges. All of these efforts will benefit from and be supported by your unwavering adherence to our agreed commitments in the human dimension."
The summit was addressed by other heads of state and government. They highlighted the need for the OSCE to step up its efforts to ensure peace and security in the region, protect human rights, prevent terrorism and illegal drug trade, settle conflicts. Speakers highlighted the principle of territorial integrity in resolution of conflicts and peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh and other conflicts.
President Ilham Aliyev made a speech at the event.
He thanked the Kazakh leader for "high-level organization" of the summit.
The Head of State highlighted the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying Armenia carried out an ethnic cleansing policy against Azerbaijanis in their native Nagorno-Karabakh.
"Twenty percent of our territory has been under occupation of the Armenian armed forces, with more than million Azerbaijanis being refugees and IDPs."
"Along with the Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian armed forces also occupied seven adjacent regions. All houses, historic monuments, holy places, social facilities were destroyed there," the Azerbaijani leader added.
President Ilham Aliyev also highlighted other military crimes by the Armenian armed forces, including their atrocities in Khojaly.
The President said: "Although Azerbaijan is seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict, the Armenians do not give up their policy of aggression, still continuing to hold Azerbaijan`s lands under occupation."
President Ilham Aliyev said the conflict must be solved on the basis of international legal norms and resolutions by international organizations, including the UN Security Council, European Parliament and Council of Europe and OSCE decisions.
"However Armenia is making the situation tenser instead of demonstrating a good will to achieve a soonest possible solution to the conflict. Armenia regularly violates the ceasefire and carries out military exercises on the occupied lands, it changes the historic and geographic names of those lands and illegally resettles civilians there, making it impossible to find a solution to the conflict. And the result is that the peace talks have been useless."
The President said: "All this has been highlighted in the OSCE fact-finding mission`s report. By these actions Armenia shows it does not want peace and seeks to have the status quo unchanged. And it stalls the peace talks for an uncertain term."
The Azerbaijani leader praised the OSCE Minsk Group`s proposals made in the last six years.
"We are interested in the continuation and soonest possible completion of these talks, we want the conflict to be solved on the basis of international law and Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity," President Ilham Aliyev added.
The summit will continue Thursday.

AzerTAc  

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