(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 2. Azerbaijan has once
again witnessed the unfair and far-from-reality approach of the
European Parliament members, Azerbaijani MP Soltan Mammadov, Head
of the Working Group on Azerbaijan-France Inter-Parliamentary
Relations, told trend .
He made the remark commenting on the joint statement of the
Chair of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with
the South Caucasus, Marina Kaljurand, the European Parliament's
rapporteur for Armenia, Andrey Kovatchev, and the European
Parliament's rapporteur for Azerbaijan, Eljana Zovko.
According to Mammadov, this joint statement is a manifestation
of a completely biased and non-objective approach.
The MP pointed out that rather than making statements that
inflame tensions, members of the European Parliament ought to
promote harmony and peaceful coexistence.
As the MP emphasized, the allegations that the Lachin-Khankendi
road is closed and Armenian residents in the Karabakh region of
Azerbaijan are facing a 'blockade' are completely unfounded.
"Azerbaijan has put forward several proposals, including the use
of the Aghdam-Khankendi road and other alternative routes for
transporting large humanitarian cargoes. These proposals have also
been supported by the European Union and the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)," Mammadov reminded.
"However, the Armenian side resorts to various means of
provocation to prevent the implementation of these proposals,
create additional tensions in the region, and mislead the
international community," he added.
The MP stressed that the blockade of access to the territory by
installing concrete barriers on the Aghdam-Khankendi road, sending
cargo vehicles onto Azerbaijan's territory without permission, the
injury of an Azerbaijani serviceman at the Lachin checkpoint on
June 15 due to shelling by Armenian armed forces, and other facts
indicate that Armenia is trying to use blackmail tactics.
"Since the checkpoint was established in Lachin, more than 2,000
Armenian citizens have securely crossed through. The ICRC and the
Russian peacekeeping unit, which was temporarily stationed in
Azerbaijan in accordance with a trilateral agreement reached by the
leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia after the Second
Karabakh War in 2020, can both freely use this route, Mammadov
noted. "All of this demonstrates how absolutely unfounded the
'blockade' assertions are. As a result, it is unacceptable for
members of the European Parliament to base their statements on
unreliable information".
The MP also noted that if the European Parliament members had
truly taken an objective and unbiased stance, they wouldn't have
remained indifferent to the fate of hundreds of thousands of
Azerbaijanis subjected to terror, genocide, and ethnic cleansing by
Armenia during the first Karabakh war.
"Those who signed this declaration would have recognized the
suffering the Azerbaijani people endured as a result of Armenia's
occupation policies if they had just glanced over history. These
people don't have a moral right to talk about human rights and a
humanitarian catastrophe because they didn't evaluate the 30-year
occupation, didn't protest the tragic fate of the nearly a million
people forced from their homes during the occupation, who were
internally displaced, and the fate of the civilians who were
mass-murdered in Khojaly and other settlements." he concluded.
Previously, Kaljurand, Kovatchev, and Zovko made a joint
statement claiming that Armenian residents living in the Karabakh
region of Azerbaijan allegedly faced a 'tense humanitarian
situation'.