BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 25
By Samir Ali – Trend:
Azerbaijani living in Belgium, Jahan Zahid, was brutally beaten by Armenians during an incident in Belgium, and as he said the police didn't interfere, Trend reports via Azerbaijani TV channel's report.
Zahid said that he was beaten by the Armenians in front of the Azerbaijani embassy in Brussels on July 23.
“The Armenians threw stones at us, and the police did not interfere in any way. The Armenians attacked us and injured one Azerbaijani woman. After the incident, the four of us were walking along the road, suddenly 10 Armenians blocked our way and attacked us, but But they could not cope with us and fled.”
"Then they gathered a group of some 50 people, and attacked us again, this time brutally beating us. We got injured but stood our ground. They demanded we insult our people, our president, and ask Armenia for forgiveness. We held on, so they didn't get what they wanted," Zahid said.
Following several days of intense armed clashes, after Armenia made a gross ceasefire violation and launched attacks in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district, Azerbaijanis living abroad started staging peaceful protests, calling to put an end to Armenia's aggressive occupation policy.
The rallies were met with harsh response from the Armenian diaspora members.
According to the statement of Azerbaijan's State Committee on Work with Diaspora, Azerbaijanis living abroad were injured as a result of provocations organized by radical representatives of Armenian diaspora. The provocations were carried out in Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the US (Washington and Los Angeles), Georgia, Turkey and Ukraine.
In certain cases, as in Poland, the Netherlands and France, the radicals threw bottles, stones, glass shards and explosion packages at the Azerbaijanis, tried to overturn their cars, significantly damaged the buildings of the diplomatic missions of Azerbaijan.
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, 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 the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.