Envoy slams European Parliament committee's discrimination against Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan's ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and the head of the mission to the EU, Vagif Sadigov, has criticised the policy of discrimination led against Azerbaijan by the European Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee.

He made the remarks while commenting on Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan's meeting at the committee on January 23, APA reports.

"A meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on International Relations will be held today. Mirzoyan will speak at the meeting. The Azerbaijani side was not invited to the meeting... Usually, the committee invites people to meetings whom it wants to see. I do not know whether they invited the Armenians themselves or they applied themselves - in any case, the position of the Committee deserves criticism because they are having a conversation with the Armenians about Azerbaijan, but we were not invited. In this regard, [head of the Azerbaijani delegations at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] Samad Seyidov last week addressed a written appeal to the chairman of the committee, David McAllister, but there was no response," he said.

The diplomat noted that since the last elections in 2019, the European Parliament has become more radical and the number of populists has increased significantly. He noted that the ardent left and right MPs have reduced considerably the intellectual and professional level of the European Parliament.

"Since the documents adopted by the European Parliament are advisory in nature, the executive bodies of the European Union do not take them seriously, but to some extent shun parliamentarians. Armenians have many friends here on the grounds of religion and racism. They are very concerned about the strengthening of Azerbaijan, as well as Turkey. As for France, their number and opportunities are huge here. The policy of hostility that France has recently demonstrated against us is openly manifested here. During our meetings, we have repeatedly stated to the head of the Committee on International Relations that we are ready to address the committee: alone or together with the Armenians. Samad Seyidov also addressed them at a meeting here in December. They didn't answer," Vagif Sadigov said.