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Azerbaijan criticizes AfD’s visit to Nagorno-Karabakh
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A destroyed house in Stepanakert in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region
Source: dpa-infocom GmbH
Several AfD MPs had traveled to the Nagorno-Karabakh war zone; Azerbaijan has now harshly criticized the visit in a protest note. The men are members of a group that agitates for Armenia and they are included in a “black list”.
AIn a protest note, Serbia criticized the visit of several AfD deputies to the Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh conflict region in the southern Caucasus. Bundestag members Steffen Kotré and Stefan Keuter, as well as members of the state parliament Andreas Galau and Andreas Kalbitz had illegally visited the “occupied Armenia” war zone, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry announced in the capital Baku on Monday. The protest note goes to the German Bundestag and the Brandenburg state parliament. The four politicians had previously reported on their trip to the war zone on social media.
The men were members of a group that was agitating for Armenia, the protest note said. Therefore, they would be included in a “black list”, which would ban entry to Azerbaijan in the future.
In this way, the former Soviet republic is also trying to prevent journalists who want to get an idea of the situation from traveling to Nagorno-Karabakh. “These people stand out for their Nazi and anti-Semitic statements,” the ministry letter read.
Steffen Kotré posted a video of a destroyed church
Kalbitz, who had been denied party affiliation by the AfD federal executive board in May due to previous contacts with the right-wing extremist milieu, wrote on Facebook: “My solidarity goes to the Armenian people and their brave defenders, who also represent the struggle of Christian cultural areas against Islamic expansion. “
Kotré posted a video of himself in a destroyed church. “One thing is clear: the aggression by Azerbaijan and Turkey must be stopped immediately,” he said. The politician said they had been handed NATO ammunition. This proves that Turkey is involved in the war as a member of NATO. There is no official confirmation for this.
The two former Soviet republics have been fighting for decades over the mountainous region of about 145,000 people. Armenia controls Nagorno-Karabakh, but under international law it belongs to Islamic Azerbaijan. In a war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union some 30 years ago, Azerbaijan lost control of the area. There has been a fragile ceasefire since 1994. Russia is considered to be the protecting power of Armenia.
