While the “war of nerves” continues, with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) acting as a proxy agent of behind-the-scenes puppeteers sitting in the political offices of certain Western countries, we feel compelled to warn this organization about the degree of permissibility in carrying out its activities in the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan.
All cargo crossing the state border of Azerbaijan must undergo full customs and phytosanitary inspection and be subject to applicable duties payable to the state treasury. Diplomatic immunity can only be claimed by the staff of the organization itself, and the cargo it carries is not “diplomatic mail” exempted from inspections. The practice of uncontrolled transportation of goods, which we all witnessed during the environmental campaign on the Lachin-Shusha road, has come to an end. There is no humanitarian disaster area in Azerbaijan, and all imported cargoes are only commercial. Please, be so kind as to go through the “red channel” of the customs.
If the recipient of the cargo is the ICRC, the cargo delivered to the destination point (in the Karabakh economic region of Azerbaijan) must be distributed FREE of charge to the population by the personnel of this organization.
If even a single piece of pasta or grain of rice is handed over to stores and other retail facilities in Khankendi and other settlements for subsequent sale, the ICRC will be acting as an illegal intermediary between the sender of goods and retail facilities that are not registered with the relevant authorities of Azerbaijan (in particular, the Ministry of Taxes, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, etc.) as prescribed by the laws of Azerbaijan. This would be a gross violation of the legislation and economic sovereignty of Azerbaijan and an attempt to perpetuate Karabakh as a “gray area”.
Relevant government agencies of Azerbaijan have every capability (including those of operational nature) to monitor whether the imported goods end up on store shelves for further trade.
Any retail facility in the territory of temporary deployment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in the Karabakh economic region wishing to carry out retail sales of goods delivered to the region through the ICRC must be registered as a legal entity. Otherwise, valid complaints will be lodged against the ICRC.
