Baku sends protest letter to Belgium
By Laman Ismayilova
Baku will send a protest letter to Belgium’s executive and legislative bodies over an illegal visit of Belgian MPs to Azerbaijan’s territories occupied by Armenia.
Hikmet Hajiyev, Spokesman for Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry made the remark while talking to Trend.
“Some members of a group of MPs from the local legislative body of Belgium’s Flemish region, who illegally visited Azerbaijan’s occupied territories, are known for their radical views both in Belgium and beyond,” Hajiyev said, stressing that some of them stand out with a position promoting hatred on ethnic and religious grounds.
The spokesperson said that by visiting the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, these people support the unrecognized regime created here as a result of Armenia’s military aggression against Azerbaijan and the bloody ethnic cleansing.
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by the U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
Hajiyev further added that those Belgian MPs will be included in the list of ‘persona non grata’ of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
“This visit was organized by the ‘European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy’ and federation’s head Kaspar Karapetyan personally accompanied the Belgian MPs during their visit to the occupied lands.
With such provocative actions, Armenian diaspora circles try to impede the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with the international law, as well as restoration of peace and stability in the region,” he said.
Baku has repeatedly announced that it will not tolerate the violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, including in particular through engaging in and/or facilitating by whatever ways and means illegal activities in the occupied territories.
Under the Azerbaijani legislation, any illegal activity in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan can be cause for a prosecution. Unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied regions of Azerbaijan are considered illegal and individuals who pay such visits are included in the ministry’s “black list”.
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