Armenia arranges illegal foreigner visits to Nagorno-Karabakh
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
Armenia is arranging fraudulently the visits of foreigners to the occupied Azerbaijani lands, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported.
Some 435 persons have been included in the ministry's persona non grata list so far, Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Hikmet Hajiyev said on February 27.
"Foreigners should realize that the lands they visit are part of Azerbaijan's territory and any visit without permission of the Azerbaijani authorities contradicts the country's law. As a result, those persons are included in the list of unwelcome persons," Hajiyev noted.
"Based on personal appeals", Hajiyev said, "names of tens of people were excluded from the list."
In 2013, the Ministry announced some 335 people who visited the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region as unwelcome on its list of persona non grata.
The Foreign Ministry's blacklist contains the names of 435 persons from over 40 various countries who landed on Azerbaijan's territory under Armenian occupation without a permission from Baku since 2005.
The list of persona non grata banned from visiting Azerbaijan includes the parliament members, businessmen, journalists, entertainers, various political and social figures and others from different countries, including Hungary, Russia, Spain, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Greece and etc.
All the unwelcome persons are blamed for violating Azerbaijan’s borders and undermining the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.
Russia, Italy, France, Germany are the top countries whose citizens paid illegal visits to Azerbaijan's historical Karabakh land.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry reminds all nationals of foreign countries wishing to travel to Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied regions of Azerbaijan that due to continuing occupation by the Armenia Armed Forces, these areas are temporarily out of control of Azerbaijan.
Any visit without the consent of Baku to the above-mentioned territories, which are internationally recognized as an integral part of Azerbaijan is considered as a violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan and as a breach of national legislation, as well as relevant norms and principles of international law.
The Ministry would like to remind that those who traveled to the occupied territories without prior permission of the Republic of Azerbaijan will be denied the entry to the Azerbaijan's territory and included in the list of persona non grata.
Baku has stated that such visits, paid without prior notification to the relevant authorities of Azerbaijan, are illegal and damage the settlement process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Azerbaijan's internationally recognized Nagorno-Karabakh territory has become a conflict zone following Armenia's aggression in the early 1990s. As a result of Armenia's armed invasion, 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory fell under Armenia's occupation. Nonetheless, the OSCE has attempted to foster a peaceful resolution to this conflict amid Armenia's persistent derailment on peace talks.
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