The law that forbids cooperation and communication with Armenians will not damage international image of the oil-bearing Azerbaijan, director of the "Region" Research Centre, Laura Bagdasaryan, told Arminfo correspondent.
"As the initiators of the May law "On the occupied territories of Azerbaijan", members of the parliament Zakir Orunj and Hudrat Hasanguliyev said, any contacts with Armenians at any level, except the official circles of Azerbaijan that have been dealing with the Karabakh conflict settlement, will be fraught with criminal responsibility. But when on 20 May 2013 press-service of the parliament disproved this information saying that the issue was not discussed in the committees, the Armenian-Azerbaijani projects went on developing as earlier", - she said.
She also added that after Rauf Mirkadirov's arrest and the information of the National Security Ministry about an intention "to reveal an espionage network working in favor of Armenia", the Azerbaijani rules still remain unclear, and the joint work with Armenians does not obviously find room in the official formula of "the right Azerbaijani". Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Legal Policy and State Building, Ali Guseinli, has recently presented a unique interpretation of "the moral of Mirkadirov's arrest". He characterized the "people's diplomacy" like "the relations between the persons which gained mandates from the people for such communication".
"However, it is not clear, how the people will give such a mandate to the persons which go to contact with Armenians. Maybe, instead of such warnings, it is worthwhile to adopt a bill which forbids cooperation and communication with Armenians. There is no need to worry about the international image of the country. It will waver a little and stop, as it used to happen many times. And the economic interests of the international establishment in Azerbaijan are still stable", - director of the "Region" said.