THE HAGUE — A group of Dutch-Armenians kept a three-day silent watch with posters before the Second Chamber (Parliament) of the Netherlands in The Hague in rotating turns from January 17-19 from 09:30 to 18:00 every day (in close to freezing and windy weather).
The action was organized by the Federation of Armenian Organizations in The Netherlands (FAON). During the watch, some of the MP’s joined the activists.
There were two motions by the parties in the Dutch Parliament (Second Chamber) on the Lachin humanitarian crisis: 1. To bring pressure upon Azerbaijan to open the corridor, and 2. To open an airlift to transport humanitarian aid to Artsakh. Almost all speakers emphasized the need for urgent action.
After the argumentations of Minister of Foreign Affairs Whopke Hoekstra, it was decided to take the first motion, i.e. to increase pressure on Azerbaijan, and to put the motion into action together with other European Union member states.
The second motion, on opening of humanitarian airlift, was not sustained. According to the minister, there are legal-technical problems which make the motion impractical at this stage. Besides, it has limited effect, as the real solution is the opening of corridor, for which The Netherlands would do its best.
On January 20, the Dutch Parliament adopted a resolution calling the Dutch government to increase pressure on Azerbaijan to open the Lachin corridor. The motion had been submitted by Don Ceder (Christian Union faction) and cosigned by Agnes Mulder (Christian Democratic Appeal faction).
