Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 22 /Trend, S.Agayeva/
MEP illegally visiting the occupied territories of Azerbaijan needs geographic literacy campaign, said Azerbaijani political scientist Fikret Sadikhov.
"I have absolutely no doubt that the members of such an authoritative organization should receive a diploma in geography, they are certainly well aware that Nagorno-Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan," a member of the Trend Expert Council Sadikhov said on Wednesday.
MEP, the keynote speaker on Armenia Tomasz Poręba, is on a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh from Dec.19, where he is holding meetings with the leadership of the unrecognized republic and discussing issues concerning the resolution of the Karabakh conflict, the situation in the region and bilateral relations, the Armenian media outlets reported.
"Moreover, there are many resolutions adopted, including at the level of the European Parliament, which recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, for nearly 20 years the negotiations have been continuing to resolve the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, and suddenly the representative of the European Parliament visit Nagorno-Karabakh, ignoring official Baku," said Sadikhov.
Azerbaijani political analyst estimates the MEP's visit to the occupied Azerbaijani territory without the permission of the Azerbaijani Government as a total disregard and disrespect for the interests of Azerbaijan.
According to Sadikhov, this is a sign of indifference to what's going on in the territory of Azerbaijan.
"I am convinced that this MEP should understand and know what might be the consequences of this visit. And of course, it ended with the fact that Azerbaijan has rightly made a note of protest and invited the Polish ambassador and European Commission representative in Baku to the Foreign Ministry," said the analyst.
In this regard, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on Tuesday presented a protest note to the head of the EU delegation in Azerbaijan Roland Kobia and Polish ambassador Mikhal Labenda.
The opposite side was informed that this incident caused serious protest of the Azerbaijani side. It was reported that it was undesirable for foreign citizens to pay illegal visits to the Azerbaijani occupied lands because they show disrespect to sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
A request was made to the EU institutions and the Polish government to take the necessary measures of preventing further similar inflammatory steps directed to further deteriorate the situation in the region.
According to Sadikhov, ultimately, if the MEP does not provide some intelligible explanations for his thoughtless action, then surely it will be included in the black list of persons whose visiting to Azerbaijan in future will be considered undesirable.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
The European
Parliament member (MEP) Tomasz Poręba's visit to the occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh is of a private character. The EU legislative body bears no responsibility for this, a diplomatic source in the European Parliament told Trend.
"There is a big difference between the visits of individual MEPs on their individual initiative, which is their own responsibility, and the official European Parliament's delegation which are mandated by the European Parliament. In that case the European Parliament is responsible," a source said.
He said that it was Poręba's own inititaitve to visit the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.