Foreign Ministry confirms Armenian Ambassador received death threats from Azeri counterpart

YEREVAN, November 5. /ARKA/. Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Paruyr Hovhannisyan confirmed that Armenian ambassador to Belgium and EU, Tigran Balasanyan, received death threats from  Azerbaijani Ambassador Vagif Sadigov.

"Yes, according to the information received, insults and threats were made during a reception organized by the Turkish embassy, prompting us to send a note to both the Belgian authorities and the European Union. Based on my information, an investigation is currently underway regarding this matter," Hovhannisyan told journalists in parliament.

In response to a question regarding the reaction, the deputy minister stated that there had been none so far, but that an official notification about this situation had been sent.

The day before, Politico reported that a letter circulated to envoys last week, alleged that Armenian Ambassador Tigran Balayan was “verbally attacked and intimidated” by Azerbaijani Ambassador Vaqif Sadiqov, who “voiced explicit threats against his life.”

According to Politico, the incident happened at a reception at the Tangla Hotel in Brussels, hosted by the Turkish Embassy in honor of the country’s national day.

It is understood to have been the first Ankara-sponsored engagement the Armenian Embassy had been invited to since a 2020 war between the country and Azerbaijan, a close ally of Turkey. -0-