Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry official announced about the prevention of the unauthorized visits of tourists to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Hikmet Hajiyev, the acting spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said, the Azerbaijani embassy in Canada has taken the necessary measures in connection with organization of the illegal tourist trips to Azerbaijan’s occupied territories organized by "ToursbyLocals". The head office of the "ToursbyLocals" company is located in Vancouver, Canada.

“As a result of the actions, the company’s illegal tours to the occupied lands of Azerbaijan have been suspended,” Hajiyev told Trend on December 15.

He noted that all information about illegal trips has been removed from its website.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry and diplomatic missions pay special attention to the illegal activity in the occupied areas of Azerbaijan. The work is constantly carried out to prevent such illegal actions.

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

Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry in 2013 released a list of 335 people declared 'persona non grata' over their illegal visits to the Armenian-occupied territories. Some of these people were removed from the list after appealing to the Azerbaijani government.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned foreign officials and diplomats of unauthorized visits to its territories that are occupied by Armenia, calling them 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 occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.