Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry may consider incoming appeals of some people who were previously "blacklisted" over illegal visits to the Armenian-occupied territories of Azerbaijan requesting to cancel the decision, Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said on September 13.

Unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia are deemed illegal and individuals paying such visits are included in the "black list" of the Foreign Ministry.

As a rule, the appeals asking to cancel this decision indicate that these persons were taken to the occupied territories by deception.

Recently, the Foreign Ministry expressed concern over a visit by Danish parliament members and journalists to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Earlier, Abdullayev said persons who visit the occupied territories of Azerbaijan without having agreed upon this with relevant authorities of the country will be considered persona non grata in the country.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned foreign officials and diplomats over visits to the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia, saying this contradicts international law. The Foreign Ministry has stated that such visits, paid without prior notification of the relevant authorities of Azerbaijan, are illegal and damaging to the settlement process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Earlier, the Foreign Ministry released a list of those declared persona non grata over illegal visits to the Armenian-occupied territories, which included 335 people.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.