Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan`s Foreign Ministry has ``blacklisted`` three French lawmakers who have visited Nagorno Karabakh, an occupied region where ethnic Armenians are running a self-proclaimed republic, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said last week.

``Such visits do not serve to the conflict resolution [between Azerbaijan and Armenia], and on the contrary, complicate it. The Azerbaijani embassy in France has sent a note [of protest] to the French Foreign Ministry,`` Abdullayev said.

Abdullayev said such actions are unacceptable, reminding that France is a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is brokering settlement to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict along with the United States and Russia.

``The French MPs have again become victims of the Armenian lobby,`` the ministry spokesman added.

During the French Senate members` visit to Nagorno Karabakh, they reportedly met with the self-proclaimed republic`s leader, Bako Saakyan, and discussed issues including the separatist regime`s ``foreign policy``.

Nagorno Karabakh has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since a 1994 cease-fire ended a war that killed an estimated 30,000 people and ousted up to one million Azerbaijanis from their homes. The separatist regime declared so-called independence at the time of the Soviet collapse in 1991, defying international law.