Menu
Latest
Menu
Latest
French parliamentarian:

French parliamentarian:

23 August 2011

NKR National Assembly Speaker Ashot Ghulyan received four members of France's parliament who visited Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday. The speaker welcomed the guests and highlighted the importance of France's mediation in resolution of the Karabakh conflict. The delegation led by Guy Teissier, chairman of the French National Assembly's committee on national defense, comprises also Jacques Remiller, Georges Colombier, and Valerie Boyer, ArmInfo's correspondent to Stepanakert reported.

Ashot Ghulyan stressed that over the last years the French parliamentarians have paid several visits to NKR which promotes cooperation with the Karabakh parliamentarians.

For his part, Teissier said: "Coming to Armenia is a gesture of friendship. Coming to Karabakh is a gesture of solidarity." The senior lawmaker, who is affiliated with France's ruling Union for the Popular Movement (UMP) party, said that Karabakh had been incorporated into Soviet Azerbaijan "at the whim of a dictator" and that its predominantly Armenian population should be able to determine its status.

"Why would we keep silent and not say that people very deeply rooted in this land have the right to live here?" added Teissier.

Jacques Remiller, another UMP deputy and the mayor of the French city of Vienne, also voiced "great sympathy" for the Karabakh Armenian cause. The parliamentarians declared that visiting Karabakh they learn the core of the conflict.

"France wants peaceful resolution of the conflict," Teissier said. Ashot Ghulyan thanked the French parliamentarians for open talk and came out for further cooperation.

The French lawmakers are scheduled to tour on Tuesday several Karabakh villages and meet with leaders of local non-governmental organizations uniting Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan.

Related articles

Editor's choice
News
ANAMA hosts 4th International Mine Action Conference in Baku
Trending

ANAMA hosts 4th International Mine Action Conference in Baku

2 September 2026
The 4th International Mine Action Conference is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 2 - 3 September 2026. The event is hosted by ANAMA, the Azerbaijani Mine action agency and the United Nations. The conference, which attracts hundreds of particpants from all over the world, opened with a message from president Ilham Aliyev, delivered to the coonference by senior presidential administration official, Hikmet Hajiyev. The theme of the conference is HUMANITARIAN DEMINING FOR URBAN RECOVERY; SETTING STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE FOR SAFE SETTLEMENTS. President Aliyev in his message said, "Unfortunately, mines and unexploded ordnance continue to threaten human life and security in many countries around the world. Long after conflicts have ended, explosive ordnance continues to cause loss of life, injury to civilians, damage to infrastructure and delay reconstruction projects. In this regard, humanitarian demining is an essential commitment to safe settlements. Urban reconstruction in post-conflict areas requires the restoration of buildings, roads and public infrastructure, as well as the establishment of security and confidence. No city, village or town can be fully rebuilt, no school or hospital can function safely, no family can return to their homes with dignity, and no economic activity can develop sustainably until the land is cleared of mines and explosive remnants of war. Humanitarian demining is therefore at the heart of urban reconstruction and the creation of safe settlements. (click image to read more).

Popular

Editor's choice
Interview
Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov
Trending

Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov

15 January 2026
Today, commonspace.eu starts a new regular weekly series. THURSDAY INTERVIEW, conducted by Lauri Nikulainen, will host  persons who are thinkers, opinion shapers, and implementors in their countries and spheres. We start the series with an interview with Murad Muradov, a leading person in Azerbaijan's think tank community. He is also the first co-chair of the Action Committee for a new Armenian-Azerbaijani Dialogue. Last September he made history by being the first Azerbaijani civil society activist to visit Armenia after the 44 day war, and the start of the peace process. Speaking about this visit Murad Muradov said: "My experience was largely positive. My negative expectations luckily didn’t play out. The discussions were respectful, the panel format bringing together experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey was particularly valuable during the NATO Rose-Roth Seminar in Yerevan, and media coverage, while varied in tone, remained largely constructive. Some media outlets though attempted to represent me as more of a government mouthpiece than an independent expert, which was totally misleading.  Overall, I see these initiatives as important steps in rebuilding trust and normalising professional engagement. The fact that soon a larger Azerbaijani civil society visits to Armenia followed, reinforces the sense that this process is moving in the right direction." (click the image to read the interview in full)
Murad Muradov
Lauri Nikulainen interviews Murad Muradov