Story of Lapshin explains superiority of law for illegal visitors to occupied lands
The story with a blogger Alexander Lapshin, who violated laws of Azerbaijan, is nearing the end.
Lapshin, who is a citizen of Russia, Ukraine and Israel at the same time, was extradited from Belarus to Baku on February 7. The blogger had illegally visited the occupied Azerbaijani lands in April 2011, thus disrespecting Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, and also crossed Azerbaijan’s border once again by visiting the country in October 2012 using a different passport.
Lapshin, who was aware that he became banned for entering Azerbaijan after his visit to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, inappropriately joked about the situation in his blog, and after a while again headed to Azerbaijan. He passed the control at airport in Baku by using his Ukrainian passport, where his name was written down as Oleksandr. In this way, he entered the country, as there was no such name in the "black list" of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
To promote the illegal regime created in the Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani territories, Lapshin presented Nagorno-Karabakh as an “independent state” in his blog. Moreover, he expressed support to the “independence” of the unrecognized regime on April 6 and June 29, 2016, by calls aimed at violating the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
On December 15, 2016, the law enforcement bodies of Belarus detained Lapshin in Minsk at the request of Interpol. Following that, some people, and primarily circles in Armenia, tried to save the blogger from justice by inexplicably speaking about freedom of speech. However, none of their attempts worked and justice has been served. Lapshin violated internationally recognized borders of a sovereign state, and norms of international law at the same time. Any country would act the same way as Azerbaijan.
In a telephone talks with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on February 8 President Ilham Aliyev described this step as compliance with the rule of law and international conventions, as well as a manifestation of friendly and strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Belarus.
He thanked Belarus and personally to Lukashenko for demonstrating a fair position and taking a resolute step to extradite Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Russian Ambassador Vladimir Dorokhin also discussed the case of extradited Lapshin on February 8.
The ministry said that the Russian consul will meet with Lapshin on February 9-10 in line with the Vienna convention, and the Russian embassy will have an opportunity to communicate with him.
Mammadyarov said that Lapshin’s further fate will depend on completion of an investigation and a court decision.
“This event will be a serious lesson for everyone who doesn’t or is unwilling to respect the territorial integrity and the principle of inviolability of Azerbaijani borders, and make those who intends to resort to similar illegal actions think well in advance,” said Azerbaijani MP, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly vice-president Azay Guliyev commenting on the extradition of Lapshin.
Another MP Aydin Mirzazade said that this is also another serious warning for Armenia. “Armenian criminals who committed war crimes against the Azerbaijani civilians will also be brought to justice,” he added.
After the extradition of Lapshin, Vahram Baghdasaryan, the head of faction of Armenia’s ruling Republican Party, inexplicably said that Armenia should raise the issue of termination of Belarus’ membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
Although Belarus as well as Azerbaijan acted fully within the international law, the story with Lapshin's extradition irritated the Armenian circles. And it is quite understandable. This story attracted much attention to the fact of occupation of Azerbaijani NagornoKarabakh by Armenian armed forces.
Persons, who illegally visited Nagorno-Karabakh at the invitation of Armenians, often apologized to Azerbaijan after they learned that their visit was illegal, and explained that they were deceived by the Armenian side. Now, after the extradition of Lapshin, more people will be aware of the consequences of illegally visiting occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Armenian media already state that the number of visits to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh will be considerably reduce after this incident.
By and large, the extradition of Lapshin is an illustrative precedent. This story is an example proving that no crime will go unpunished. Now everyone, who visits occupied Nagorno-Karabakh without the permission of Azerbaijan, will understand what their actions may lead to.