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 The next year will be exceptional and reasonable to achieve settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and it is necessary to use this opportunity, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, State Information Agency Azertag reported. “France as co-chairman of the Minsk Group will make every effort to achieve peaceful and fair settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” French President Sarkozy’s letter, addressed to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, said. |
 Some documents have been signed within the framework of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s first official visit to Ashgabat. The Azerbaijani and Turkmen Ministries of Transport signed agreement on organization of international train-ferry cargo transportations via ports of Baku and Turkmenbashi, exploitation of carriages and containers, registration on their numbers and estimations on their use. |
 Azerbaijani students can continue their education in Czech higher education schools now. This opportunity for students is offered by two scholarship programs financed by Chechia and UNESCO, the Ministry of Education said. The scholarship programs offer bachelor and master degrees of education from 2009 to 2010. People, willing to partake in the programs, should send an application form to UNESCO department on scholarship programs (r.jakubowicz@unesco.org) till December 31. |
 "If Azerbaijan joins European Union’s Eastern Partnership initiative and accepts the terms to be envisaged here, it will increase its chances to enter this organization,” head of European Commission Delegation to Azerbaijan, Ambassador Alan Waddams said at the meeting “Azerbaijan’s integration into European Union: results and prospects”, APA reports. Alan Waddams said that it was impossible to say how the processes would develop in future. |
 On 28 November Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who is on visit to Turkmenistan, met in private with Gurbangulu Berdimuhammedov, the State Information Agency AzerTag reported. Both Presidents expressed their satisfaction in development of Azerbaijani-Turkmen relations in different fields, as well as confidence in their further development. Azerbaijani President Aliyev’s official visit to Turkmenistan will serve further strengthening of bilateral relations, the sides said. |
 “By providing their own energy security, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan play an important role in the energy security all over the world,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in Ashgabat on November 28. The Azerbaijani-Turkmen ties are developing and differ for their dynamics, President said. |
 President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree about changes in decrees and orders. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree with the purpose of ensuring creation of integrated database of the addresses of immovable property objects. |
 Foreign Ministers of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Moldova will sign a protocol on cryptographic protection, which will enable virtual centre of GUAM on struggle against organized crime to activate its activity, at the end of meeting in Helsinki. Four post-Soviet republics; Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, established the GUAM format in 1997 during a summit of presidents of European Union countries in Strasburg, whilst it practically was inactive by 2005. |
 “I don’t expect the Council of Europe to become an ideal forum for the solution of the [Armenian-Azerbaijani] Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” said Angel Moratinos, the new chairman of the CE Committee of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, during the press conference held at CE in Strasburg on 27 November. Karl Bildt, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, and Terry Davis, CE Secretary-General attended the conference as well. |
 “Azerbaijan supported Turkmenistan’s initiative on necessity to get guarantee from the United Nations (UN) on security of transnational pipelines,” on 28 November Turkmen President Gurbangulu Berdimuhammedov said at the end of a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who is in the first official visit to Ashgabat. “Speaking about international organizations, I would like to thank Ilham Aliyev for supporting us at initiative in security of transit (of hydrocarbon resources),” Berdimuhammedov told journalists at the end of negotiations. |
 Azerbaijan Popular Front Party and Musavat Party accuse each other of failure in establishing a new union of opposition. “Position of Musavat Party presents obstacles for establishment of the union of opposition,” Deputy Chairman of opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, Fuad Mustafayev, told TrendNews on 28 November. Mustafayev said that failure in establishing the union of opposition will not bring serious successes to Musavat Party |
 The Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) hopes for settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within a short period of time. Recent activation of negotiation process around settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict aroused hope to solve the conflict within a short period of time, Goran Lennmarker, rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said. Lennmarker intends to discuss new ideas with Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Elmar Mammadyarov and Edvard Nalbandyan in Helsinki during a meeting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers to improve negotiation process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the rapporteur of the PA OSCE told TrendNews via telephone from Stockholm. |
 “Moscow Declaration is a chance. The chance can be used or not,” Russkiy Mir’s Board Executive Director, well-known Russian politologist, Doctor of History and Political Science Vyacheslav Nikonov told APA He stated that Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a serious problem and it was difficult to imagine solution to the conflict from theoretical point of view. |
 Musavat Party said they could ally only with Azerbaijan Popular Front Party. Chief of the party’s assembly Sulheddin Ekber told APA that Musavat had already determined its criteria and could ally with only a real opposition party having real political force. Sulheddin Ekber said Musavat was interested in allying with Azerbaijan Popular Front Party both for its political position and real power. Other parties are not in this list. And with whom do the other parties want to ally? |
 On November 28, the World Bank and the Government of Azerbaijan signed a loan agreement for the Social Protection Development Project, which aims at improving delivery of labor market and social protection interventions through strengthened institutions and improved targeting of social safety net programs. The loan is offered on standard IDA terms with 35 years to maturity, including a ten year grace period. |
 Icherisheher Metro Station (former Baki Soveti) will be reopened for passengers by late December after reconstruction. “The station is under reconstruction at present and reconstruction and redecoration work is slated for completion. The station will open by the end of December,” said Baku Metro. The Cabinet passed a decision on April 25 to rename Baku Soveti Station as Icherisheher. |
 Armenian representative is expected to attend the meeting of ministers of culture of European countries on December 2-3 in Baku, said Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfas Garayev, APA reports. The Minister said the Council of Europe invited Armenia to this meeting. “The Council of Europe invited Armenia to the meeting, but their participation has not been confirmed yet. Maybe Armenian representative will attend this meeting on the level of other participants”. |
 An exact date has been fixed to hold founding conference of the new opposition Aydinlar party to be established in Azerbaijan. “The Organization Committee for preparations to the conference has decided to hold the conference on 14 December,” the Initiative Group of Aydinlar Party told TrendNews on 27 November. Chairmen of the PFPA regional organizations in Lankaran, Samukh and Gakh resigned at the beginning of October and said that they would continue their political activities at Aydinlar Party. |
 “Azerbaijan’s EU membership will depend on Europe, as well as European Union”, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said while giving an interview to Italian Rai International TV Channel, APA reports. The Head of State added that relations between Azerbaijan and EU were at high level and Neighborhood program with EU had been carried out for two years. |
 National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of Azerbaijan (NRTBC) urged international organizations not to describe suspension of broadcast of foreign radio stations on national frequencies as a political matter. “International organizations and other states are interested in continuing discussions not to suspend broadcast of foreign radio stations. Despite all of these, our position remains unchanged,” chairman of NRTBC Nushiravan Maharramli said to Trend News. |
 As a result of Armenia’s military aggression towards Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani women are subject to violence for their ethnic origins. “During occupation of Azerbaijan’s lands Azerbaijani women were taken hostages and captives by Armenians and they were subject to violence,” Hijran Huseynova, chief of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Problems, said while addressing conference dedicated to International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. |
 Edvard Nalbandyan, the Armenian Foreign Minister, said that he would invite his Turkish counterpart Ali Babajan to Armenia, the Turkish Zaman newspaper reported. The Armenian Foreign Minister is expected to invite his Turkish counterpart within the framework of a conference of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization to be held in Yerevan in April 2009. |
 Rufiz Hafizoglu, Editor of the Middle East desk of Trend News. Relations between Armenia and Turkey comparatively have improved after Serzh Sargsyan’s victory in the presidential elections. Unlike previous Armenian government, which held radical and irreconcilable position toward Turkey, the current government seeks to demonstrate more moderate position. However, Armenians’ territorial claim to Turkey and ‘genocide’ issue prevented to restore relations between the countries. |
 Opposition Umid (Hope) Party of Azerbaijan has given a go-head to preparations for the municipal election. “Chief of the party Igbal Agazade met with the head of local offices of the party in Gabala, Oguz, Kurdamir, Samukh, Agdash regions and Ganja city and gave orders concerning municipal election,” deputy chief of Umid Party Anvar Agayev said to Trend News. |
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