Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has said the Canadian telecommunications company excluded the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh from its international dialing list.

This was stated in a letter by the Canadian company İmpact Telecom (Startec) in response to Azerbaijani embassy in Canada's reaction, Hikmat Hajiyev, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman said on June 2.

Previously, this company carried out calls to Azerbaijan’s occupied territories by referring to the location dialing point as "Nagorno-Karabakh".

Hajiyev said the Azerbaijani embassy in Canada expressed its dissatisfaction with such activities of the company, having brought to attention the fact of occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia.

He told Trend that the embassy called on the company to exclude occupied Nagorno-Karabakh from its dialing list.

Hajiyev explained that in a response letter the company apologized to Azerbaijan and confirmed that it had suspended calls to these areas.

Earlier, Azerbaijan called on Canadian companies to abandon all activities in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories, noting the inadmissibility of Canadian companies carrying out activities in these territories.

Illegal activities in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories are a key issue for the Foreign Ministry and the country’s diplomatic missions as they carry out extensive work to combat such illegal activities.

The Azerbaijani embassy in Canada earlier took all necessary measures in connection with the illegal organization of tourist trips to Azerbaijan’s occupied territory by "ToursbyLocals", which head office is located in Vancouver (Canada).

As a result of these measures, illegal tourist trips from this company to the occupied Azerbaijani territories have been suspended and all information on the organization of such illegal trips has been removed from its site.

Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far. Armenia has not yet implemented any of the four U.N. Security Council resolutions provisioning its pullout from Azerbaijan territories.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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