Foreign Ministers dwell on Aliyev’s statement
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's statement at the Euronest session in which he calls Armenians fascists and occupants cannot promote the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said during a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart Erkki Tuomioja.
For his part, Mr Erkki Tuomioja underlined that special attention should be paid to issues of racism and intolerance.
The Finnish FM says he honours the recent report of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), which states that Azerbaijan seeds hatred towards Armenians.
"The assessments given by influential human rights organizations should be taken seriously. We should be vigilant in such matters," he said.
Erkki Tuomioja said his country is satisfied with the level of relations with Armenia and is happy with the progress recorded between Armenia-EU relations.
"We expect Armenia to have new achievements in this direction and expect the country's joining the Association Agreement," said the Finnish official.
Armenian-Finnish relations were anchored at the beginning of the 17th century when merchants from New Julfa established trading links with Scandinavia. Armenian-language books were already published in the country in the 19th century. Today the Helsinki library holds over 3300 Armenian books.
