Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 8
By Azad Hasanli – Trend:
The extradition of blogger Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan shows the political will and ability of the country’s leadership to take the boldest steps to defend the state interests, Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmadov told reporters in Baku Feb. 8.
“I think this is one of those many facts proving that Azerbaijan is able to defend its state interests,” noted Ahmadov.
He said Azerbaijan has always demonstrated its unequivocal position with regard to the people who violate national laws, international laws and norms.
“I think that thanks to this position, we can ensure that each person who commits a crime will be brought to justice,” added Ahmadov.
Alexander Lapshin is a citizen of several countries and has had a criminal conspiracy with Armenians living in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. He also illegally visited these territories.
Lapshin is accused of violating Azerbaijani laws on state border in April 2011 and October 2012.
In order to promote the illegal regime created in the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia, Lapshin presented Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh as an “independent state” on his social media account, and supporting the “independence” of the unrecognized regime he made public incitements aimed at violating Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity on April 6 and June 29, 2016.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.