ANKARA: Azeri court jails blogger for illegal Karabakh visits

Anadolu Agency, Turkey

Alexander Lapshin faces 3 years in prison for entering Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani territory

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ANKARA

A Baku court on Thursday sentenced a blogger to three years in prison for “illegal” visits to occupied Azerbaijani territories.

The Baku Court on Grave Crimes said Alexander Lapshin had illegally entered Azerbaijan by visiting the Karabakh region, currently occupied by Armenia.

Azeri news agency APA reported that Lapshin, who holds Russian, Israeli and Ukrainian citizenship, entered Karabakh in April 2011 and in Oct. 2012

He was detained in Belarus last December; the country’s Supreme Court approved his extradition to Azerbaijan on Feb. 7.

Azerbaijan and Armenia remain in dispute over the occupied Karabakh region.

Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan in 1991 with Armenian military support, and a peace process has yet to be implemented.

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS