Fresno Bee , CA
Oct 9 2011

The Buzz: Sen. Joe Simitian not losing sleep over blacklisting
Sunday, Oct. 09, 2011 | 03:31 PM

Simitian isn’t losing sleep over Azerbaijan blacklisting

State Sen. Joe Simitian, blacklisted by the Azerbaijani government
after traveling to a separatist region while on a diplomatic visit,
was back at his Palo Alto office Thursday, not entirely crestfallen.

“Let me put it to you this way,” he said. “It’s a disappointment I can
live with.”

Simitian was among a group of California senators visiting Azerbaijani
officials in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital city, when he went on his own
to Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian area and the center of a
long-standing dispute.

The visit violated Azerbaijani rules restricting travel in the region,
and Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan’s consul general in Los Angeles, said
Tuesday that Simitian was “basically blacklisted (and) will not be
allowed back.”

No one in Azerbaijan told Simitian, apparently. The news, first
reported by local media, reached the senator via Google alert.

Simitian said that after listening to Azerbaijani officials’ concerns
about Nagorno-Karabakh, he felt compelled to hear from the other side.

“I was trying to get a better sense of the dynamic,” the Democrat
said. “Fundamentally, my view is that the public is better served by
elected officials with a broader world view rather than a narrower
world view.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress