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Azerbaijan parliament’s delegation cancels visit to Moscow amid situation in Yekaterinburg

The move was motivated by "acts of violence against Azerbaijanis" committed by law enforcement officers in Yekaterinburg who thwarted the activities of an ethnic group

BAKU, June 29. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s parliamentary delegation has cancelled its visit to Moscow to a meeting of the joint commission on interparliamentary cooperation amid the developments in Russia’s city of Yekaterinburg, the press service of the Azerbaijani parliament said.

"The parliamentary delegation led by first deputy speaker, Ali Akhmedov, will not take part in the 23rd meeting of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis (parliament - TASS) and the Russian Federal Assembly (bicameral parliament - TASS) on interparliamentary cooperation which was scheduled to be held in Moscow," it said.

The move was motivated by "acts of violence against Azerbaijanis" committed by law enforcement officers in Yekaterinburg who thwarted the activities of an ethnic group. Earlier, Baku expressed protest over the incident, claiming that two Azerbaijanis were killed and several more were wounded in the police raids.

According to the Russian Investigative Committee’s Sverdlovsk Region directorate, the police thwarted the activities of an ethnic group, opening a criminal case on charges of a murder committed in collision by a group of individuals, a contract murder, and an attempted murder. Investigators say that the defendants in the case were involved in several murders and attempted murders committed in Yekaterinburg in 2001, 2010, and 1011.

According to Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Russian Charge d’Affaires Pyotr Volkovykh, who was summoned to the Azerbaijani foreign ministry, provided necessary explanations concerning this situation.