Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Azerbaijan to demand explanation from Czech Foreign Ministry on ambassadorâ€™s statements

23 June 2017 14:18 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan’s Embassy will demand an explanation from the Czech Foreign Ministry regarding the anti-Azerbaijani statements of the country’s ambassador to Armenia, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev told APA on Friday.

Czech Ambassador to Armenia Petr Mikyska earlier claimed that the declaration by Azerbaijan of European Parliament members Frank Engel (Luxembourg), Eleni Theocharous (Cyprus) and Jaromír ŠtÄ›tina (Czech Republic) internationally wanted for their illegal visit to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not a legal but a political step.

Hajiyev noted that the Czech ambassador to Baku will also be summoned to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

“If indeed these statements were made by the Czech ambassador, then this contradicts the norms and principles of international law. On the contrary, the Czech ambassador, with such statements, politicizes legal issues of a criminal nature,” he said.

The persons who illegally visit the occupied Azerbaijani territories, make calls against Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and constitution, collaborate an illegal criminal regime and create discord on ethnic and religious grounds are criminalized under Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code, stressed Hajiyev.

According to the spokesman, one of them is Czech citizen Jaromír ŠtÄ›tina, who, abusing the status of a member of the European Parliament, made visits to the occupied Azerbaijani territories and carried out such illegal activities with the financial support of the Armenian lobby.

Hajiyev also reminded that the 9th and 10th chapters and Articles â„– 309, 310, 323 and 324 of the Criminal Code of the Czech Republic provide for punishment from 10 to 18 years of imprisonment for the acts against the country’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and constitutional framework.

“That is, if Jaromír ŠtÄ›tina had committed such illegal acts in the Czech Republic, he would have faced such a heavy punishment. However, the Czech authorities don’t take necessary measures to prevent Jaromír ŠtÄ›tina from committing similar acts in the occupied Azerbaijani territories,” he added.