Violation of Azerbaijani laws can’t be called freedom of speech

Hajiyev was commenting on the statement of the US State Department spokesman John Kirby on the arrest of Lapshin in Belarus, which was requested by the Azerbaijani side.

Lapshin illegally visited the occupied Azerbaijani lands, disrespecting Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, and also crossed Azerbaijan’s border once again visiting the country using a different passport.

"The fact that he is a blogger does not allow him violating laws and rules of other countries,” Hajiyev said.

There are enough cases of violation of the Azerbaijani laws in Lapshin’s acts, and the principle of the rule of law should be applied in a uniform way to everyone, he added.

Alexander Lapshin is a citizen of several countries and has had a criminal conspiracy with Armenians living in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. He also illegally visited these territories.

Lapshin is accused of violating Azerbaijani laws on state border in April 2011 and October 2012.

In order to promote the illegal regime created in the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia, Lapshin presented Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh as an "independent state” on his social media account, and supporting the "independence” of the unrecognized regime he made public incitements aimed at violating Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity on April 6 and June 29, 2016.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.