The Belgian Federal Parliament has again approved Nagorno-Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan, a source at the Azerbaijani parliament's press and public relations department has said.
On December 2, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Belgian Federal Parliament's House of Representatives discussed a draft resolution on Karabakh and recommended it for the parliament's plenary session after introducing numerous amendments.
Although the text of the draft resolution was to be put to vote in the plenary session of the Belgian House of Representatives on December 17, the Belgian Senate decided to put the document to vote on December 11 as a result of efforts by the pro-Armenian circles, the source said.
The main initiator of the draft resolution in the Senate is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Interdisciplinary Affairs, Mark Demesmaeker, a member of the Islamophobic and anti-Turkish nationalist New Flemish Union Party (N-VA), one of the main carriers of separatist tendencies in Belgium.
The head of the Azerbaijani parliament's inter-parliamentary relations working group on Belgium, MP Kamal Jafarov, addressed a letter to Belgian Senator Mark Demesmaeker on the issue. In the letter, the MP briefed his Belgian counterpart on the merits, reminding that international law and even Belgium's official position on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is in favor of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.
Various Armenian diaspora organizations and pro-Armenian forces are trying to cover up Armenia's recent failures against Azerbaijan by adopting such resolutions. In fact, the anti-Azerbaijani efforts of the Armenian lobby organizations in the Belgian parliament, which did not fully achieve what they wanted in France, were also in vain. Thus, the initial draft resolution proposed the establishment of diplomatic relations with the former occupying regime in order to recognize it and ensure its security.
However, as a result of timely steps taken by the Azerbaijani government and parliament, such absurd proposals were not accepted. Also, all references to the so-called "artsakh" in the original text of the draft resolution were removed and the concept of Nagorno-Karabakh was adopted. The most important point was that under international law, UN Security Council Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 were included in the draft resolution. In other words, the document, which the Armenians and pro-Armenian forces tried to accept in every possible way, confirmed that Nagorno-Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan.
On December 9, the Canadian Senate rejected a motion by pro-Armenian senators on recognizing indepedence of Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region. Fifty-three senators voted against the motion, 16 voted in favor for it and five senators abstained from voting.
On November 25, the French Senate adopted a draft resolution on the recognition of the self-styled entity in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was seriously condemned by Azerbaijan's high-ranking official circles. On November 26, Azerbaijan sent its protest note to France over the resolution titled "On the need to recognize the ‘Nagorno-Karabakh Republic'". Later, Azerbaijan strongly condemned the adoption by the French National Assembly of another resolution titled "Protection of the Armenian People and Christian Communities of Europe and the East" . Baku sent its protest note to Paris over this resolution as well.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry ruled out any legal force of the resolutions and said that they run counter to all existing international documents.
Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijan's region that along with seven adjacent districts was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s.
On November 10, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Russia-brokered agreement to end fighting in Karabakh and work towards a comprehensive solution.
The November peace agreement ended the 30-year-old conflict between Baku and Yerevan over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region that along with the seven adjacent regions came under the occupation of Armenian armed forces in the war in the 1990s. For nearly three decades, Armenia failed to implement the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of its troops, which was the main obstacle to the resolution of the conflict.
