YEREVAN. - Hero of Karabakh War, Major General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan (Komandos), who is also the head of the pan-Armenian patriotic organization DOSAAF of Armenia, has refused to take part in the  90th anniversary celebration of DOSAAF of Belarus, considering the judgment of Minsk court on extraditing blogger Alexander Lapshin to Baku.

On his Facebook page, Komandos posted the invitation of DOSAAF of Belarus and his response thereto.

“Dear Ivan Vasilyevich,

Thank you for the invitation but I won’t be able to take part in the 90th anniversary of DOSAAF of Belarus considering the fact that I have been to Karabakh,” Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan’s letter reads.  

After his visits to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2011 and 2012, Alexander Lapshin was “blacklisted” by Azerbaijan. In June 2016, however, he paid a visit to Azerbaijan, but with a Ukrainian passport. Subsequently, he issued several articles criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities. Afterward, the Azerbaijani authorities issued an international search for this famous blogger. And on December 15, 2016, he was detained in the Belarus capital city of Minsk, and based on this international search.

On January 26, the Minsk city court dismissed the complaint of blogger Alexander Lapshin over the decision of the Belarusian prosecutor’s office to extradite him to Azerbaijan. 

The Supreme Court of Belarus on Tuesday dismissed the complaints filed in the case of blogger Alexander Lapshin.

According to the experts and human rights defenders, Lapshin’s case may become a horrible precedent limiting the freedom of speech of foreigners and freedom of movement of Armenian citizens.

Blogger Alexander Lapshin was brought to Baku Tuesday evening.