US and Norwegian embassies demand investigation of attack on their diplomats in Nakhichevan

On Thursday, January 14, the embassies of the USA and Norway in Baku made a joint statement in the context of the incident with their employees on January 12 in the village of Bananyar, Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR) of Azerbaijan.

Diplomats from these embassies went to the village because the arrest of a group of local residents late last year for participation in the mass action on the occasion of the Ashur Day, mourning holiday for Shiite Moslems.

The statement of the diplomatic missions of the USA and Norway, now at the disposal of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, runs that "diplomats from these embassies went to Bananyar village to study the situation and aiming to better understand the case." However, when foreign diplomats approached the village, their car was stopped by a group of persons, who started abusing them. "Then, they were forced to leave the village, not allowing to communicate with local residents," the statement further says.

As it became known to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent from diplomatic sources, the US embassy was represented by Joanna Ganson, and the Norwegian one - by Lars Hanssen.

In his turn, Elkhan Polukhov, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, said in response of the request of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent to comment on the above embassies' statement: "The Azerbaijani party undertakes everything as dictated by the legislation of the country in the context of the statement of the embassies of the USA and Norway."

Further, Mr Polukhov said that "foreign diplomats, while executing their duties, should observe the provisions of the 1961 Hague Convention on diplomatic relations." Saying that, he failed to further explain, whether the official Baku finds the diplomats' trip to Bananyar a violation of this Convention.

Meanwhile, a number of former Azerbaijani politicians have sharply condemned the attack on foreign diplomats. Thus, Khikmet Gadjizade, ex-ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia, treated the incident as a "shame".