Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 13
By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:
Armenians are promoting separatism not only in the South Caucasus region, but also in the world, head of the Institute for Human Rights of Azerbaijan’s National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), Ph.D. in political sciences, associate professor Elshad Mirbashiroglu told Trend.
He said that on the initiative and with the support of the Armenian lobby, which exists in various countries, individual officials and businessmen repeatedly made illegal visits to the occupied Azerbaijani territories and tried to engage in certain activities there.
“In general, both the Armenian diaspora organizations and the Armenian diplomatic corps openly contribute to the criminal activities of the invading Armenian state,” he noted.
“Recently, the foreign press has been spreading information that the Armenian ambassadors in various countries have links with the criminal world. One of them appeared in the German press. This information refers to the close ties of Armenian Ambassador to Germany Ashot Smbatyan with the Armenian criminals. In addition, information has been spreading about the links of Bundestag member Albert Weiler with criminal groups.”
Mirbashiroglu added that namely these ties allowed Weiler to illegally visit the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia. While actively lobbying for occupier Armenia, Weiler sought to be included in the delegation of German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel during her visit to Azerbaijan, Mirbashiroglu noted.
However, the Azerbaijani side prevented it, he added.
“As a rule, those who visited the occupied Azerbaijani territories are persons who have ties with Armenian criminal groups,” he said. “This suggests that the image of Armenians as criminals continues to strengthen in various countries. There are already extensive discussions in the German media outlets about the criminal activities of Armenians and German citizens having ties with them.”
“From these discussions, it is clear that Armenian criminal groups are characterized in Germany as quite dangerous ones,” he noted. “These criminal groups, with which Armenian officials are also closely associated, are trying to harm the Azerbaijani-German relations. Organization of a trip of the Bundestag member to the occupied Azerbaijani territories can serve as an example.”
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.