Urges at the National Assembly to recall the Ambassador, hold demonstrations and freeze CSTO membership
The NA session started with tough assessments by the factions and parliamentarians against Belarus President Lukashenko. Khachatur Kokobelyan said, “We all saw how our “friend” Belarus in violation of international human rights norms extradite famous blogger Alexander Lapshin to our enemy Azerbaijan. Besides the fact that this was a case of deprivation of the rights of free expression of will, this person is also openly accused of visiting Nagorno-Karabakh and for expressing his thoughts and views about this visit.”
He called on the National Assembly which is number one political body in Armenia to express its position. Eduard Sharmazanov as a co-chair of the Armenian-Belarusian Cooperation Committee said that this a disgraceful move which does not derive from the logic of peaceful settlement. This is a move against RF and peace settlement and Armenia, it is a blow to democratic values, “This is a just disgraceful and dirty deal.”
Nikol Pashinyan reminded that Belarus has been considered to be our strategic ally in the CSTO and the EaEU, and now the extradition of Lapshin to Azerbaijan just for visiting Artsakh and writing a positive feedback about Artsakh is the same as Hungary extradited Ramil Safarov. He called on the Foreign Ministry to recall our ambassador to Belarus and initiate the toughest diplomatic and political countermeasures. Republican lawmakers agreed with Nikol Pashinyan. Samvel Farmanyan said that he does not doubt that the Azerbaijani authorities have no courage nor political “baggage” to expose Lapshin to responsibility, they will find a pretext to extradite him to Russia or other countries, this is just a message not to visit Artsakh.
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Farmanyan reminded, “Even a dictator like Stalin failed to compel his citizens and subjects to think as he wants. And particularly presidents of Belarus and Azerbaijan will also fail to do it.” Samvel Farmanyan noted that it is worrying that the CSTO and the EaEU, and Belarus as an ally state, begin to devaluate, and Russia has a question here to think about it. RPA faction MP Khosrov Harutyunyan joined Nikol Pashinyan’s offer urging everybody to protests in front of the Belarusian Embassy.
RoL parliamentarian Mher Shahgeldyan said that Lukashenko’s move was unacceptable, and we must fight against this phenomenon at all levels for it does not become a precedent for Azerbaijan to conduct such processes in the future, “We and the Diaspora must fight to stop Azerbaijan to extend this atmosphere of fear over cultural figures.” PAP faction leader Naira Zohrabyan described the incident as an act unprecedented blatant deed and cynicism. She announced that she will be in favor to recall the ambassador and also freeze our membership in the CSTO as long as this issue is not solved legally.
