Belgian MPs refrain from laying flowers at martyrs` graves
Belgian lawmakers paying a visit to Azerbaijan did
not lay flowers to the graves of heroic Azerbaijanis while paying
tribute at the Alley of Martyrs, in a move they explained by being
uninformed about the issue.
"We have come here to familiarize ourselves with the situation and the region, but not to make political steps of any kind," Dominique Tilmans, chairman of the Belgian Senate`s Man-Woman Equality Advisory Council, told a news conference in Baku on Tuesday. "It would be wrong to take sides on an issue we are unaware of and have not researched before. We have studied this problem here, and, if solving it requires making an effort, we will do so. Our wish is to foster friendship but not to stir hostility among people."
Alley of Martyrs is a cemetery where the victims of the January Massacre are buried. The January Massacre was a crackdown of Azerbaijani protests by the Soviet army in Baku on January 20, 1990.
The parliament members said they had been poorly informed about Azerbaijan and its problems prior to their visit. The MPs were expecting to witness an Oriental country, however, they had arrived in a modern, Western-like state, they said.
Tilmans said the lawmakers had been briefed on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, voicing hope that the long-standing dispute would find its solution by means of diplomacy.
"We shared your problems here. But our job is to listen to Armenians just the way we listen to you," the senator said.
During the meetings held in Baku, the Belgian MPs were provided with comprehensive information about the ongoing occupation of Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh and seven other Azerbaijani districts by the Armenian armed forces. The visitors, in turn, pledged to spread pertinent information in their country on the basis of the data they were provided with and the observations made during their visit.
"We have come here to familiarize ourselves with the situation and the region, but not to make political steps of any kind," Dominique Tilmans, chairman of the Belgian Senate`s Man-Woman Equality Advisory Council, told a news conference in Baku on Tuesday. "It would be wrong to take sides on an issue we are unaware of and have not researched before. We have studied this problem here, and, if solving it requires making an effort, we will do so. Our wish is to foster friendship but not to stir hostility among people."
Alley of Martyrs is a cemetery where the victims of the January Massacre are buried. The January Massacre was a crackdown of Azerbaijani protests by the Soviet army in Baku on January 20, 1990.
The parliament members said they had been poorly informed about Azerbaijan and its problems prior to their visit. The MPs were expecting to witness an Oriental country, however, they had arrived in a modern, Western-like state, they said.
Tilmans said the lawmakers had been briefed on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, voicing hope that the long-standing dispute would find its solution by means of diplomacy.
"We shared your problems here. But our job is to listen to Armenians just the way we listen to you," the senator said.
During the meetings held in Baku, the Belgian MPs were provided with comprehensive information about the ongoing occupation of Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh and seven other Azerbaijani districts by the Armenian armed forces. The visitors, in turn, pledged to spread pertinent information in their country on the basis of the data they were provided with and the observations made during their visit.
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