Epress.am News from Armenia
Azerbaijan considers participating in the Eastern Partnership youth forum held in Yerevan unacceptable.
Armenia has repeatedly been invited to the international youth activities held in Azerbaijan, but despite the fact that full guarantee of safety was ensured, it refused to participate in them, spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Youth and Sport Samaya Mammadova told the Baku-based Trend news agency on Tuesday.
“Armenia was invited to a meeting of the Council for the Youth of the CIS member states, as well as a meeting of Sports Ministers of the Council of Europe, which were held recently in Baku. It was given a complete guarantee of safety. However, the Armenian side refused to participate in these events. Armenia has also refused to participate in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Baku in May,” she said.
Armenia, repeatedly citing as a reason security concerns, refused to participate in various events held in Azerbaijan, she said. “But it should be noted that during the world wrestling championship, which took place in Baku, security was provided for Armenian athletes at a high level,” said Mammadova.
Given all this, Azerbaijan considers it unacceptable to participate in the youth conference under the Eastern Partnership, held in Yerevan, said the spokesperson.
According to head of EU delegation to Armenia Traian Hristea, however, the reason Azerbaijan won’t be participating in the youth event is because it is celebrating the new year holiday of Nowruz.
The Eastern Partnership Youth Forum is held in Yerevan from Mar. 26–28 within the framework of the Eastern Partnership’s Platform 4 “Contacts Between People”. The youth event aims to promote dialogue and exchange of practices with the Eastern partners (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) in relation to strategies on youth participation.