Senior Azerbaijan MP’s letter on Karabakh Armenians angers Switzerland lawmakers
News.am
On October 15, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council, the lower house of the Swiss Parliament, had passed a resolution demanding the Swiss authorities to hold an international conference on the return of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Armenians to their homeland. With that, however, the Swiss parliamentarians provoked the anger of Azerbaijan.
In late October, all the members of the aforesaid committee received an individual letter from Azerbaijan, in which MP Rizvan Nabiyev demanded the withdrawal of the approved motion from the committee.
Swiss parliamentarian Erich Vontobel, who is the author of the controversial resolution, does not allow himself to be intimidated and is convinced that the Swiss National Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee has clearly hit Azerbaijan’s sore spot.
“The Swiss parliament has the freedom to make decisions on such initiatives—without the influence of external pressure. I support the right of Karabakh Armenians to return to their homeland and rely on the real peace process. An immediate peace conference will be crucial in promoting stability in the region,” Vontobel said.
Swiss MP Niklaus-Samuel “Nick” Gugger already had negative experiences with the Azerbaijani government. After reading the letter, the lawmaker is convinced: “This is an unacceptable and really unpleasant letter, a brazen attempt to influence a foreign parliament.” Gugger hopes that the representative of the Swiss executive, Minister Albert Rosti, will discuss the Armenian issue at the upcoming UN climate conference in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
Swiss parliamentarian Nicolas Walder also is not intimidated by the aforesaid letter, but, in his view, the audacity to send such letters to the lawmakers of a sovereign state is astonishing. “It’s a rather undiplomatic intervention,” he noted.
At the December session, the National Council of Switzerland will vote on the aforementioned resolution adopted by its Foreign Affairs Committee, which requires the country’s executive to hold a peace conference within a year on the return of Artsakh Armenians to their homeland.
