Azerbaijan Tries to Create Obstacles for Foreign Observers to Go to NKR

• 04.11.2015, 17:13
•  Region,  World

In Azerbaijan criminal case is opened against the former speaker of the Slovak National Council František Mikloško for breaking the "territorial integrity" of Azerbaijan. The former Speaker visited the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2010 as an international observer in the Parliamentary elections. Later the Slovak politician also visited Artsakh introducing the world the essence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. ""Nagorno Karabakh has been unrecognized for 20 years, while one visit is enough to get convinced that the people of Arsakh cannot but live independently. Artsakh must continue to behave as an independent state just as it does today until the world accepts its independence. Karabakh is one of the most democratic states in the world," – Mikloško said after his second visit to NKR in 2012.

Recently he has declared that Artsakh should continue developing the same way. "Karabakh should strengthen its relations with other countries in the spheres of culture, education and religion," – the politician has mentioned. He has called on the West to support Artsakh, as without this it will be difficult for Artsakh to strengthen its statehood and economy. "In this regard Karabakh is like Western Berlin, which would never develop without the support of the West," – Mikloško mentioned, emphasizing the existence of Christian values in NKR. "The Christian Europe has forgotten those values people in Karabakh remember," – he said.

After his first visit to NKR, the Slovak politician was included in the "black list." The Azerbaijani official sources, by informing about the criminal case opened against Mikloško, do not mention why right now they decided to start such a process. It seems, the reason is the upcoming NKR Parliamentary elections. With this step Baku tries to "threaten" those foreigners, who have expressed their readiness to be an observer in Artakh Parliamentary elections.

The effectiveness of such a step is another topic of discussion. Any person, who visits Artsakh, almost automatically appears in the Azerbaijani "black list" and for a person, whose entrance to one country is forbidden, it is hardly important that there is a case against him. Thus Baku’s this step can be considered as a propaganda, the aim of which is just to show its society, that the government does "steps" to create obstacles for the NKR parliamentary elections or the international reactions around it.