Azernews.Az

The Russian government has issued a warning to its ethnic Armenian citizens, saying they should bear in mind the unresolved status of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict when traveling to Azerbaijan.

After Azerbaijan’s state airline AzAL barred an ethnic Armenian Russian citizen from its flight in late October, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich reminded its citizens that the positions of Azerbaijan and Armenia on the entry of people to their territories are "seriously complicated" by the long-standing conflict.

"We recommend Russian citizens to take this into account when planning trips," Lukashevich was quoted by Russia 24 TV channel as saying at a weekly news briefing.

The incident has caused great concern in the media and even overshadowed more important topics, he said, adding that this incident is "regrettable".

Russian citizen Sergei Gyurdzhian, a manager for Russian carmaker Avtovaz, was not allowed to fly to Baku from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. AzAL spokesman Maharram Safarli said earlier that Gyurdzhian had been warned by an AzAL representative that his visiting the country "would be inappropriate from the viewpoint of his safety". In response, Gyurdzhian and another Avtovaz executive who was traveling with him ignored and insulted the AzAL representative. Afterwards, the Avtovaz manager was barred from checking in for the flight, according to Safarli.