Nagorno Garabagh

Nagorno Garabagh

Baku: Karabakh separatistâ€™s visit to Brussels - nothing but tourist trip

16 June 2016 14:25 (UTC +04:00)

â€œWhile in Brussels, the man named Bako Sahakyan had a private meeting with Els Van Hoof, head of the friendship group with Armenia in the Belgian Federal Parliament, and his old friend Karl Vanlouwe, who is a member of the local Flemish legislative body,â€ the spokesman noted Â

Hajiyev recalled that Karl Vanlouwe, known for his radical dissentingÂ and Islamophobic views, has made several illegal visits to Azerbaijanâ€™s occupied territories, and thus his name has been included in the list of undesirable persons of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

In response to the protest of the Azerbaijani Embassy in the Kingdom of Belgium, the Belgian parliament and the Flemish legislative body have assured those meetings were individual not official, according to Hajiyev.

According to the spokesman, Bako Sahakyan, having the Armenian diplomatic passport, provided false information about his identity and place of residence while obtaining a Schengen visa.

â€œWhatâ€™s discontent is that Eastern Partnership countries impose sanctions on such persons when issuing Schengen visas, however, despite the fact that Bako Sahakyan submitted false information and fake documents, a Schengen visa was issued to him,â€ he added.

This once again proves that the Armenian side, instead of starting substantive negotiations upon the agreement reached in Vienna and taking steps to change the unacceptable status quo, is trying to harm the negotiation process on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Hajiyev concluded.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Groupâ€™s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.Â Â

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.