16:36 - 20.07.2018

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July 20, Fineko/abc.az. Azerbaijan’s First Lady and First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyev received today the participants of the Baku meeting of the CIS Council of Internal Affairs Ministers.

Having expressed satisfaction with the fact that the Council’s regular meeting takes place in Azerbaijan, she stressed that this is the 5th meeting of the Council in our country.

"Azerbaijan is an active CIS member, and our position is to develop all-round cooperation, cooperation in various spheres – political, economic, humanitarian issues, security issues. The Council has a very important function in ensuring the normal, peaceful life of our citizens. Stability, public order, and the rule of law are a necessary condition for development of any state," the First Lady said.

The First Vice-President brought to attention that Azerbaijan is making its contribution to the security of the region. Describing as a positive phenomenon the fact that Azerbaijan is a country with low crime rate, crime detection in it is increasing, the number of serious and especially serious crimes has decreased in the country almost by 30%.

First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva expressed confidence that Council’s work will further contribute to strengthening those trends.

"The CIS Council of Internal Affairs Ministers is an excellent platform to build very effective cooperation in such areas as exchange of operational information, minimization of risks, joint fight against organized crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, and extremism, and we need to cooperate in the effective fight against new threats and challenges posed by globalization," the First Lady emphasized.

Welcoming Interpol Secretary-General Jürgen Stock, the First Vice President congratulated him on his appointment to this important position. She expressed confidence that Interpol would continue to support security in the region in the future.

"I want to draw your attention to the facts of illegal economic activity of a number of foreign companies in the territory of Nagorno Karabakh. At the moment, 177 foreign legal entities have been identified that carry out illegal economic activities in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. At the same time, 710 foreign citizens visited the occupied territories. Nagorno Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan, and the territorial integrity of our country is recognized by the whole world. Therefore, these violations, these actions are a gross violation of the legislation of Azerbaijan. At the same time, in recent years there have been cases of using these territories for cultivation and subsequent traffic in narcotic products, that certainly also causes great concern. These actions on the part of both foreign companies and individuals are a crude violation of the legislation of Azerbaijan, and our state is taking and will take all legal measures to stop and prevent those actions. Of course, in this light, we very much count on the support of Interpol. I want to thank you once again for sharing your experience and for our joint work, and I’m sure that in the future we’ll continue our successful cooperation," the First Lady underlined.

Russian Internal Affairs Minister and chair of the CIS Council of Internal Affairs Ministers Vladimir Kolokoltsev stressed that at the Council’s current meeting will cover many important issues and make important decisions. Stressing the significance of joint efforts, Kolokoltsev noted that the decisions taken are aimed at ensuring the safety of citizens.