Meeting at Dutch Foreign Ministry
Demonstration Opposite the Azerbaijani Embassy

The Hague, 27 February 2017 – Also this year, the Joint Armenian Organisation organised a demonstration in front of the Azerbaijani Embassy in The Hague, in memory of the victims of Sumgayit in 1988 and in other cities. Today’s demonstration took place despite the extremely adverse weather conditions. Again many Armenians came to The Hague to protest strongly against the anti-Armenian policy of Azerbaijan.

Before the demonstration, a meeting took place at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs between a delegation of Joint Armenian Organisation and the Deputy Director of Europe Department, Adriaan Palm. The delegation of Joint Armenian Organisation handed him a letter addressed to Foreign Minister Koenders.

Thereafter an extensive discussion took place on many important issues and concerns of the Armenians in the Netherlands on the situation in Nogorno Karabakh, where the conflict has just been intencified. In the letter the Dutch government is asked to work for preventing war and to promote greater efforts, whether on own initiative or at EU level, in order to achieve a political, peaceful solution to the conflict. This depends first of all on the observance of the cease-fire, which is regularly violated by Azerbaijan, which cannot be established without the presence of international observers. The letter also asks to condemn (and to continue comdemning) publicly the Azerbaijani aggression and overt racism against Armenia and Armenians. The Dutch diplomat spoke about limitations of the policy of his country in this regard and the need for the Netherlands to support the efforts of OSCE Minsk Group. The delegation also asked about the Dutch position on the issue of extradition of blogger Lapshin to Azerbaijan, the recent Azerbaijani extradition requests for three members of the European Parliament and possible similar situations that would affect Dutch nationals.

The demonstration of Dutch-Armenians started at the Peace Palace in The Hague. Under the chanting of slogans, the demonstrators marched through the streets of The Hague and reached the Embassy of Azerbaijan, where the slogans were chanted louder and sounded more powerful. The event lasted over an hour despite the heavy rain and wind. There were speeches and songs in different languages, even a song was performed by the youngest participant of the demonstration.

It is once again proved that the Dutch-Armenians living thousands of kilometers away from Karabakh, are in solidarity with the soldiers who defend the homeland.