Nagorno-Karabakh conflict discussed at Belgian Parliament

Azerbaijani MPs Rovshan Rzayev and Fuad Muradov have attended hearings at the Belgian Parliament involving members of the Foreign Relations Commission.

Addressing the event, Rzayev highlighted Azerbaijan's development history. He also drew the audience`s attention to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, describing it as the country's key problem. “As a result of Armenia's occupying Azerbaijan`s Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions more than one million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced persons. The refugee problem, which Europe is facing today, emerged in Azerbaijan in the early 1990s," he said.

The Azerbaijani MP underlined the impossibility of maintaining the status quo, saying this may pose serious threats to the future of the region.

In his remarks, MP Muradov noted that the documents of UN, OSCE and Council of Europe unequivocally support territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. "Azerbaijan stands for resolution of the conflict based on the principles of international law," he said. He as well noted that European parliamentarians' visits to Nagorno-Karabakh without Azerbaijan's permission were unacceptable, urging his Belgian counterparts to refrain from such moves.

Belgian MPs expressed their confidence that resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will contribute to the establishment of stability in EU's immediate neighborhood. They said that a number of Belgian MPs, who visited Nagorno-Karabakh without Azerbaijan's consent, did not pay these visits within the activities of the federal parliament, but on their personal initiative, in order to get on-site information about the current situation.