Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry has excluded the name of the president of the Amonbe non-profit organization from its list of “undesirable persons”.

German citizen Peter Graf Schönborn was included to the ministry’s list of undesirable persons for illegally visiting Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia.

Schönborn requested Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry to remove his name from the list of undesirable persons, the ministry reported on December 3.

In a letter sent to the foreign ministry, he expressed regret over the illegal visit and stressed that he respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Despite Baku’s repeated calls to refrain from visiting country’s Armenia-occupied territories, unfortunately some foreign individuals not being aware of it visit these territories and become persona non grata in Azerbaijan.

Schönborn noted that his visit in no way served a purpose of recognizing the regime created in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories, and apologized to the people of Azerbaijan.

After the review of the request, Schönborn was removed from the list of undesirable persons.

Under Azerbaijan’s national laws, any illegal activity in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan can be cause for a prosecution. Also, unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied regions of Azerbaijan are considered illegal and individuals who pay such visits are included in Azerbaijani foreign ministry’s “black list.”

The “black list” of foreign citizens who illegally visited territories under Armenian occupation included 501 people from 49 countries, according to the research conducted by the DailyKarabakh website.

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

Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994, but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far.

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

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