MEP's visit to Nagorno-Karabakh is of private character

The European Parliament member (MEP) Tomasz Poręba's visit to the occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh is of a private character. The EU legislative body bears no responsibility for this, a diplomatic source in the European Parliament told Trend.

"There is a big difference between the visits of individual MEPs on their individual initiative, which is their own responsibility, and the official European Parliament's delegation which are mandated by the European Parliament. In that case the European Parliament is responsible," a source said.

He said that it was Poręba's own inititaitve to visit the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

MEP, the keynote speaker on Armenia Tomasz Poręba, is on a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh from Dec.19, where he is holding meetings with the leadership of the unrecognized republic and discussing issues concerning the resolution of the Karabakh conflict, the situation in the region and bilateral relations, the Armenian media outlets reported.

The opposite side was informed that this incident caused serious protest of the Azerbaijani side. It was reported that it was undesirable for foreign citizens to pay illegal visits to the Azerbaijani occupied lands because they show disrespect to sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

In this regard, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on Tuesday presented a protest note to the head of the EU delegation in Azerbaijan Roland Kobia and Polish ambassador Mikhal Labenda.

A request was made to the EU institutions and the Polish government to take the necessary measures of preventing further similar inflammatory steps directed to further deteriorate the situation in the region.

Neither the European Parliament, the EU delegation in Azerbaijan, nor the Polish embassy has voiced an official position on the incident. The European Parliament is closed for Christmas holidays until January 10.


/Trend/