Documents adopted on April 16, 2026, in the lower chambers of the Netherlands and Belgian parliaments regarding Azerbaijan have sparked new debates against the backdrop of the ongoing peace process in the South Caucasus. At a time when Azerbaijan and Armenia are close to signing a peace agreement, such steps are drawing political attention and are being interpreted differently by various actors.
Human rights defender Ahmad Shahidov, who is attending the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, told Real TV that these documents clearly carry political bias: “Such resolutions have no legal force whatsoever and are mainly used as tools of political pressure. The goal here is not an objective legal approach, but rather to promote certain political narratives.”
Ahmad Shahidov emphasized that the timing of these documents is not coincidental, given the proximity to a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia: “This is an attempt to influence the peace process and to pressure Azerbaijan into making concessions at the negotiating table. However, these documents have no real impact. They mainly serve as motivation and political support for revanchist forces in Armenia.”
