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 Monday 7:58 PM MSK


Azerbaijan to blacklist Swedish MEP for visiting Karabakh

 BAKU. Jan 29

Lars Adaktusson, a Swedish member of the European Parliament (MEP),
will be added to the list of foreign citizens, who visited 'the
occupied territories of Azerbaijan' illegally.

"While the member states of the European Union suffer from
manifestations of aggressive separatism and the European Union and the
European Parliament support sovereignty and territorial integrity of
countries participating in the Eastern Partnership program,
Adaktusson's visit to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan
[Nagorno-Karabakh] and contacts with the criminal regime created in
these lands defy explanation. Adaktusson will be added to the black
list," Hikmet Hajiyev, the spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry, said.

"It is especially shameful that Adaktusson's visit was held with the
involvement and financial support of the Armenian lobby in Brussels
engaged in the nefarious trade in diamonds and money laundering," he
said.

In addition to violating the Azerbaijani laws and principles of
international law by his illegal visit, Adaktusson has also hindered
efforts of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group aimed at settling the
Karabakh conflict by peaceful means, Hajiyev said.

"Adaktusson could have contributed to settling the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and ensuring peace in the region by
means of encouraging the successful experience of a model of autonomy
after the Aland Islands between Sweden and Finland instead of
supporting aggressive separatism and the occupation," he said.