Whyn was not Azerbaijan invited to the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum?

Baku / 22.11.18 / Turan: The 10th annual meeting of the EU Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum program will be held in Tbilisi December 10-12. According to media reports, representatives of the government of Azerbaijan are not invited to the forum, while participation of state delegations from other Eastern Partnership partners is scheduled for it. On November 22, neither the representatives of the Azerbaijani government, nor the EU mission in Baku brought any clarity on this issue. One of the members of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum from Azerbaijan, the head of the Society for Humanitarian Research Avaz Hasanov, commenting on the situation at the request of Turan, said:

"Representatives (governments) of the Eastern Partnership countries of Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova have always participated in meetings of the Civil Society Forum. Representatives of the three other states - Azerbaijan, Armenia and Belarus - participated when their questions were discussed. They did not participate in many other meetings."

According to Hasanov, Azerbaijan and Belarus have not been invited to the meeting, which is scheduled for December 10-12, the other 4 states have been invited. At the same time, Armenia is going to participate for the first time at the level of the Foreign Minister.

"Apparently, the organizers considered that Azerbaijan had not previously participated in these events, and this time it will do the same, and did not send invitations," Hasanov said.

He noted that the upcoming meeting is of a kind of strategic importance, since it will discuss the implementation of the Eastern Partnership program by the participating countries.

"If Armenia participates at the level of the foreign minister, then Azerbaijan should be invited at that level, or should be represented by the head of the presidential administration," Hasanov said. -05B06-