ArmInfo. My visit to Armenia this time is purely tourist in nature, I want to rent a car and visit the border zone of Armenia. About this at a press conference on January 22, said blogger Alexander Lapshin.
He noted that he would stay in Armenia until the end of February. The blogger noted that this is his fourth visit and it is interesting for him to visit Syunik, Meghri, as well as drive along one of the most dangerous roads in Armenia - to the village of Nrnadzor. As for whether the blogger intends to visit Karabakh this time or not, the latter noted that he now considers it inappropriate. "If I visit Artsakh now, the Azerbaijani press will once again make a fuss over my visit. Now protests are held in Azerbaijan to release another blogger Mehman Huseynov. My visit to Artsakh can distract society from the internal political processes in this country, "Lapshin emphasized.
Regarding how other bloggers reacted to the situation with his arrest, Lapshin said: "Many bloggers, of course, decided to support me, as this attitude of Baku showed that they were pursuing freedom of opinion. However, there were those whom Azerbaijan promised to pay from $ 15.tys to $ 20k so that they blacken me in all sorts of ways. However, they didn't pay many, and then they told me about it, " the blogger emphasized.
In turn, blogger Tigran Kocharyan noted that bloggers around the world several months after Lapshin's arrest in support of latter decided to visit Artsakh. "Baku has done everything possible to intimidate people and stop their visits to Artsakh. We, in turn, decided to show that we have nothing to fear, and many are ready to visit Karabakh. To this day, many bloggers continue to visit Artsakh, and some they visit him again, "Kocharyan stressed. He also noted that after Lapshin's arrest, the Armenian media, as well as bloggers from all over the world, decided to help him and protect him. "As a result, international organizations intervened in this case, especially when Alexander Lapshin was tried to be killed in prison. After their attempt failed, the Azerbaijani authorities had no choice but to release Lapshin," Kocharyan stressed.
Alexander Lapshin noted that, despite the opposition of Azerbaijan, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR - Ed.) Received his complaint against Azerbaijan. Baku has been given 3 months to submit its objections or documents on the case. "Azerbaijan presented a healthy reputation for itself, a history with the Azerbaijani landromat, bribing deputies to PACE, etc. Thus, my complaint is accepted for consideration," Lapshin emphasized.
To recall, at the end of 2016, Lapshin was detained in Minsk at the request of Azerbaijan, which included him in the "black list" for visiting Karabakh without agreement with the Azerbaijani authorities. The Baku Court of Grave Crimes convicted a citizen of Russia and Israel Alexander Lapshin "for illegally crossing the state border of Azerbaijan as part of a criminal group," sentencing him to three years in prison. Later, the blogger was extradited from Minsk to Azerbaijan. On September 10, 2017, while Lapshin was in prison, the media circulated a message about his attempted suicide. The very next day, the President of Azerbaijan signed an order for his pardon, after which he left for Israel. After his release, the blogger said that he had been assassinated in a Baku prison.