Azerbaijan’s Parliament condemns Belgian, Dutch resolutions

The Milli Majlis (Azerbaijan’s parliament) has issued a strongly worded statement condemning resolutions adopted on April 16, by the lower houses of the Belgian and Dutch parliaments, calling the documents a “gross violation of international law” and a direct provocation against the ongoing Azerbaijan-Armenia peace process.

According to the statement, the resolutions contain distorted references to Azerbaijan’s sovereign territories and are based on “false claims, unfounded accusations, and a racist, Islamophobic imagination” typical of anti-Azerbaijani circles. The Milli Majlis categorically rejected the documents as unilateral and biased, Caliber.Az reports. 

The Azerbaijani parliament noted that the adoption of the resolutions coincided with a scheduled meeting of the speakers of the Azerbaijani and Armenian parliaments—a timing it described as proof that the initiators are detached from regional realities. 

A particular point of criticism was the Belgian House of Representatives’ failure to mention the historic Washington Peace Summit or the initialing of the “Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Inter-State Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.” The Milli Majlis described this omission as evidence of “chronic bias” and incompetence on the part of the documents’ authors.

The statement also rejected the resolutions’ characterisation of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border as militarily risky and their call for the continuation of the EU monitoring mission in Armenia.

Baku pointed out that the past two years have been the calmest period on the border, with no military incidents—a fact it says has been confirmed by Armenian officials themselves.

“This peace-oriented outcome is precisely the result of Azerbaijan’s responsible conduct,” the statement added.

On the issue of detained individuals, the Milli Majlis strongly rejected the resolutions’ description of certain convicts as “prisoners of war,” noting that their war crimes and crimes against humanity had been proven through a transparent legal process. The parliament emphasised that the legality of their arrest and trial was confirmed by neutral international mechanisms, including repeated rejections of Armenian appeals by the International Court of Justice.

It further cited a March 13, 2025, conclusion by the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which upheld the legality of the detentions and did not support claims of rights violations.

The Milli Majlis called on the relevant states and the European Union to refrain from destructive interference in the peace process, which it said is being advanced through bilateral dialogue. It demanded that the Belgian and Dutch parliaments end their “hate campaign” against Azerbaijan and stop undermining regional stability.

“At this sensitive stage,” the statement warned, “such actions not only encourage anti-peace revanchist forces but also harm the European Union’s stated security and economic interests in the region.”

By Sabina Mammadli