A group of Belgian MPs, who recently visited the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic/NKR), have issued an open letter, entitled “Belgian deputies on the ‘Blackist’ of Azerbaijan,” to the ambassador of Azerbaijan to Belgium.

The letter was signed by André du Bus, Jean-Claude Defossé, Julie de Groote, Simone Susskind, Fatoumata Sidibé, Hervé Doyen, Paul Delva, Benoît Drèze, Emmanuel De Bock and Pierre Kompany, according to La Libre newspaper of Belgium, reported ARTSAKHpress news agency.

In particular, these Belgian lawmakers expressed their concern for being put on the Azerbaijani “blacklist” of foreigners that visited Artsakh.

“[What is] our original fault? As parliamentarians, Belgians, Brussels residents, Flemish and Walloons, for shaking the hands of mothers and fathers in the market of Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, now Artsakh. This self-proclaimed Republic, which, for 26 years, claims its independence from your country, Azerbaijan,” noted the Belgium MPs.

Also, they informed that, by visiting Artsakh many times, they had no intention of offering solutions to the Karabakh conflict.

“Our brief informal missions [there] have taught us a certain thing: all the mothers that we met want peace,” added these Belgian deputies. “But we [also] found out that Nagorno-Karabakh was nourished by an open democracy, with an opposition that is free to express its disagreements and a diversified press. We attended a recent [Constitutional] referendum [there], during which the regularity of electoral procedures had been submitted to our review.”