Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Member of German Bundestag has appealed to Azerbaijan with a request to exclude his name from the "black list" of persons who illegally visited the occupied Azerbaijani territory.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said on March 13 that Jürgen Klimke noted in his appeal that his visit to the occupied territories in September 2013 was not scheduled.

Klimke said he was not aware of the illegality of such a visit and its possible consequences.

He also stressed that recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and regrets about his visit to the occupied territories.

Making a commitment to never violate Azerbaijan's laws again and visit occupied territories, Klimke requested to exclude his name from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's "black list".

Abdullayev said Klimke's appeal will be considered in due course.

The Foreign Ministry earlier released a list of 335 people declared 'persona non grata' over illegal visits to the Armenian-occupied territories. Some of these people were removed from the list after appealing to the Azerbaijani government.

Earlier, People's Artist of Moldova Constantin Moscovici and famous Italian singer Al Bano were removed from Foreign Ministry's list of undesirable persons.

Unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan which are occupied by Armenia are considered illegal, and the individuals who pay such visits are included in Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's "black list".

Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned foreign officials and diplomats about visits to its territories that are occupied by Armenia, calling it contradictory to international laws.

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.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.