Azerbaijani Ambassador failed to cancel Saturday seminar devoted to Artsakh at the University of Amsterdam

04/11/2015 Diaspora News, Top No comments

Azerbaijani Ambassador failed to cancel Saturday seminar devoted to Artsakh at the University of Amsterdam

Dutch Deputy Harry van Bomel, who is a member of the faction of the Socialist Party (SP) in the Parliament of the Netherlands, is disappointed with the actions of the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the Netherlands. The Ambassador sent a letter of protest to the Parliament of the Netherlands, stating that a Dutch parliamentarian has participated in a seminar in Artsakh. Earlier this year, the parliamentarian had visited the region and was supposed to share his impressions of the visit at the University of Amsterdam this Saturday, reports Hayern Aysor, citing the Diary of the Netherlands.

The Ambassador of Azerbaijan became frustrated with the parliamentarian’s participation in the seminar in Artsakh, saying that Artsakh’s independence has not been recognized.

Harry van Bommel viewed the Ambassador’s letter as “simple and political terrorism”, adding that that doesn’t determine whether he supports Artsakh’s independence or not, or if he is for or against it.

Harry van Bommel demands that the parliamentary chamber give an official response to all this. “We can’t disregard such issues. There should be certain norms for these kinds of issues. A Member of the Parliament of the Netherlands can and must speak freely about everything.”

This scandalous story didn’t end with this. Azerbaijan is also against Harry van Bommel’s public discourse on the settlement of conflicts in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Embassy of Azerbaijan has expressed its regret in letters addressed to the Parliament and the Government.

E.M.J. (Lilianne) Ploumen. Sjoerd Wiemer Sjoerdsma

The Embassy is waiting for the authorities to at least guarantee that van Bommel’s speech will be in compliance with international norms and rights during the seminar devoted to the unrecognized country. When the authorities tried to specify the limits of that “right”, the Embassy’s representative simply couldn’t respond and kept silent. Instead, the representative reasoned that the purpose of sending a letter of protest to the Parliament is not to silence van Bommel. According to the representative, the separatists of Nagorno-Karabakh are taking advantage of such seminars to gain international recognition and voiced hope that the Netherlands wouldn’t become involved in that propaganda and wouldn’t organize such seminars in the future.

The majority of the Members of the Parliament clearly didn’t like this exorbitant audacity and have demanded an explanation from the Azerbaijani government for what the Embassy of Azerbaijan did. Deputy of the Democratic Party (D66) Schurd Vimer Schurdsman had already received the following letter from Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands: “We will put this issue on the agenda of negotiations with Azerbaijan. We live in a free country, and Mr. van Bommel has all the rights to free speech.”

On his personal website, Harry van Bommel has already clarified that he will definitely be participating in the upcoming seminar at the University of Amsterdam.

In their turn, the parliamentarians have already announced that together they will express their discontent with the crude intervention of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in the Netherlands.