Details added (first version posted on 13:57)
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 17
Trend:
Azerbaijan will send a letter of protest to Belgium's executive and legislative bodies with regard to an illegal visit made by that country's MPs to Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia, Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, told Trend March 17.
Members of a group of MPs from the local legislative body of Belgium's Flemish region, who illegally visited Azerbaijan's occupied territories, are known for their radical views both in Belgium and beyond, said Hajiyev.
He added that some of them stand out with their position which promotes hatred on ethnic and religious grounds.
"By visiting the Azerbaijani lands occupied by Armenia, these people support the unrecognized regime created on the occupied territories as a result of Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan and the bloody ethnic cleansing," said the spokesperson.
Hajiyev noted that those Belgian MPs will be included in the list of 'persona non grata' of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
He said that this visit was organized by the 'European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy' and the federation's head Kaspar Karapetyan personally accompanied the Belgian MPs during their visit to the occupied lands.
With such provocative actions, Armenian diaspora circles try to impede the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with the international law, as well as restoration of peace and stability in the region, according to Hajiyev.
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 two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Edited by SI