From the talk of the President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev with the speaker of β€Žthe Polish Parliament Joseph Ziech - Warsaw, Parliament Residence, August 27, β€Žβ€Ž1997β€Ž

Distinguished Mr. Ziech! 

Thank you for a sincere meeting and kind words. I do not doubt that the meetings and negotiations which I held and the documents signed in Poland will play an important role in rapprochement and improvement of the Polish-Azerbaijani relations.

I want to note that on the first day of my first official visit to Poland we exchanged views comprehensively with the Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski on bilateral relations, regional and international issues, and our delegations met as well. A number of bilateral documents, including the declaration on enhancement of friendly relations and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Poland were signed, thus, necessary juridical foundations were laid for broadening, the contacts between our countries.

I declare that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the integration into the European structures and it signed the \"Partnership for Peace Program\" of NATO. I think that every independent nation must behave on its own will. From this point of view Azerbaijan highly appreciates position of Poland and considers it, its important partner in Europe. I am reminding it as taking into account all the factors, in my speech at the Madrid meeting, I supported Poland\'s acceptance into NATO.

As the speaker of the Polish Parliament I am glad to inform you that we build civil, democratic and secular state in Azerbaijan. Two years ago the first democratic constitution was adopted and a multiparty parliament was elected in our country. Relations between President and Parliament are good. Presently large-scale reforms and privatization are under way. Azerbaijan follows the way of integration into the world economy and a lot has been done in this direction.

The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, one of the most painful problems which we face after the independence remains unsettled. The aggression of Armenia inflicted great loses, and 20 percent of our territories were occupied. However, we try to resolve the problem peacefully. It must be based on the principles adopted at the Lisbon Summit of OSCE. But Armenia ignores these principles and the last proposals of the Minsk Group as well. Now let\'s try to clarify the current situation on the map. It is again clear from the map that Armenia, which has occupied 7 districts of Azerbaijan alongside with the Nagorno-Karabakh district, is an aggressor, it violates the norms of the international law, and the world community and international organizations must decisively denounce this aggression. I hope that the efforts of the Minsk Group and its co-chairs, three great powers-USA, Russia and France, will give positive results. At the end of the meeting I wish successful elections to the Sejm and stress my positive attitude to the Polish people. Mr. Ziech, I invite you to visit Azerbaijan. 

Heydar Aliyev: \"Our independence is forever\" (speeches, statements, interviews, letters, appeals, decrees) - Azernashr, XII, Baku-2004, p. 57