Baku, Azerbaijan, April 20
Trend:
It is deeply regrettable that some MPs represented in Belgium’s local bodies act as supporters of Kaspar Karampetian, head of the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD), operating in Brussels, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, told Trend April 20.
Apparently, Karampetian is seriously concerned about the fact that the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan opened a criminal case against him, Hajiyev said.
Therefore, Karampetian seeks the support of some MPs in local bodies of Belgium, who illegally visited the occupied Azerbaijani territories, Hajiyev added.
Hajiyev noted that Karampetian carries out persistent illegal activity expressed in the repeated illegal crossing of Azerbaijan’s state border in 2014-2018 as part of an organized group, as well as agitation and propaganda of the so-called regime created in the Azerbaijani territories occupied as a result of Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan and bloody ethnic cleansing, and open calls for the violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan.
"Thereby, he grossly violates the fundamental rights and freedoms of more than a million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, who have been subjected to ethnic cleansing. He also violates their right to return to their native lands and to use their property," Hajiyev said.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson added that Karampetian lures European politicians by various means, organizes their visits to the occupied Azerbaijani territories and then turns these people into an instrument of propaganda against Azerbaijan, organizes and finances events spreading disinformation against Azerbaijan.
Hajiyev also noted that the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), where Kaspar Karampetian is a member, has participated in murder of thousands of innocent people in the territory of Azerbaijan and committed numerous acts of terror.
Like in every country, such actions are considered as particularly serious crimes in Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code, said Hajiyev, adding that on this basis, a criminal case has been initiated against that person.
“Armenia is responsible for the illegal actions committed in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands. Part of those illegal actions is the serious violation of the obligations under the imperative norms of the international law. Serious violation of the imperative norms of the international law requires taking special measures resulting in aggravated liability (http://mfa.gov.az/en/news/909/4939).”
Hajiyev said that the European Court of Human Rights in its decision on the case of 'Chiragov and others against Armenia' affirmed that Armenia had been involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since the beginning, and the illegal regime created in Nagorno-Karabakh exists thanks to military, political, financial and other support provided by Armenia.
"We'd like to note that in accordance with the Articles 138, 139, 144, 153 and other articles of the Criminal Code of Greece, whose citizen is Kaspar Karampetyan, a criminal liability is stipulated for violation of the territorial integrity of Greece, implementation of activities against friendly countries of Greece, as well as for insulting the state attributes of these countries. The government of Belgium has applied a universal jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, as well as violations of peremptory norms of international law (jus cogens)," he said.
Hajiyev said that threats voiced by a lawyer on behalf of Kaspar Karampetyan, who is responsible under the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, as well as laws of other countries and international jurisdiction, against representatives of Azerbaijan's independent media and a member of the Parliament, interference in their independent activities and threats to sue them at the Belgian court, are inadmissible.
"All relevant legal mechanisms will be used on a bilateral and multilateral basis to prevent Kaspar Karampetian’s activities against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan and to bring him to criminal liability. It is deeply regrettable that some members of the local bodies of Belgium act as accomplices of Kaspar Karampetian. We once again want to remind that these MPs are responsible before their voters," Hajiyev added.