BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 14. Along with the shelling of the Lachin border checkpoint on June 15, Armenian drivers tried to smuggle contraband into Azerbaijan on vehicles belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jeyhun Bayramov said, Trend reports.
He made the remark at the meeting with Head of the Representative office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Azerbaijan Dragana Kojic.
This shows that the Armenian side does not intend to stop trying to interfere with Azerbaijan's sovereignty, Bayramov said.
The minister said that the ICRC's statement of July 11 that the organization does not support the transportation of undeclared products and terminates service contracts with drivers of vehicles carrying such goods was taken into account.
Bayramov also noted the need to prevent similar cases in the future.
Meanwhile, employees of the State Border Service of Azerbaijan have revealed repeated attempts to smuggle various types of contraband by illegal means on vehicles belonging to the ICRC through the Lachin border checkpoint.
In connection with the revealed facts of smuggling, a criminal case was initiated under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, until the necessary investigative measures were carried out, the crossing of the Lachin border checkpoint at the state border was temporarily suspended.
The State Border Service said that the use of vehicles belonging to the ICRC and carrying out medical evacuation for smuggling is a gross violation of the laws of Azerbaijan, as well as an abuse of Azerbaijan's trust in the ICRC as a humanitarian organization.
To prevent the transportation of manpower, ammunition, mines, as well as other military equipment from Armenia for Armenian armed groups on the territory of Azerbaijan (who has not been withdrawn so far contrary to the trilateral statement signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders following the 2020 Second Karabakh War), and as an adequate response to the unilateral establishment of a checkpoint by Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan on April 22 at the entrance to the Lachin-Khankendi road contrary to the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020, on April 23 at 12:00 (GMT+4), the units of the State Border Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan set up a border checkpoint in its sovereign territories, on the border with Armenia, at the beginning of the Lachin-Khankendi road.