Brussels, July 12 (CTK correspondent) – The Azeri parliament’s allegation that three MEPs, including Czech Jaromir Stetina, were responsible for military escalation in the area is a monstrous claim that must be absolutely rejected because both Azeri and Armenian soldiers die in the mutual conflict, Stetina said on Wednesday.
Stetina said in this affair, he was backed by the European Parliament and its chairman Antonio Tajani.
The Interpol has rejected Azerbaijan’s request to issue an international warrant of arrest for Stetina (TOP 09), the European People’s Party, whose group includes Stetina, said in a press release on Wednesday.
The Lyon Interpol centre has also asked its members to erase the application from their national databases and not to go by it.
After his February visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azeri authorities accused Stetina of violating Azeri laws.
Stetina, Eleni Theocharous from Cyprus and Frank Engel from Luxembourg (all European People’s Party, EPP) visited the region on the day of its referendum on a new constitution.
On February 20, a constitutional referendum was held in Nagorno-Karabakh and the three MEPs monitored it. Azerbaijan protested against the referendum and said it was illegal. The referendum introduces a presidential regime and the official name for the region, Republic of Artsakh.
“The issuance of the warrant arrest for three MEPs was to intimidate hundreds of international experts who work in Nagorno-Karabakh at present,” Stetina said in his press release, adding that similar pressure and intimidation were “common instruments of the Azeri dictatorship.”
Stetina said he had expected the Interpol’s decision, but he was “outraged” at the claim that the three MEPs were responsible for the military escalation in the region.
“Not supporting Nagorno-Karabakh in this conflict means agreeing with the former Soviet ethnic policy in the Caucasus practiced by Stalin,” said Stetina, who is deputy chairman of the EP defence and security committee.
