Global Post
Aug 4 2013
Azerbaijan bans hundreds over visits to disputed territory
Azerbaijan on Friday banned 335 foreign nationals– including European
lawmakers, journalists and academics– from entering the country over
visits they allegedly made to the disputed territory of Nagorny
Karabakh.
The Azerbaijani foreign ministry released a list — including several
deputies from France’s National Assembly, a member of the British
House of Lords and a Spanish opera singer — of people declared
personae non grata in the oil-rich former Soviet state.
All those on the list had “broken the law on Azerbaijan’s state
borders and disrespected the national sovereignty and territorial
unity of Azerbaijan,” the ministry said in a statement.
Armenia-backed separatists seized Nagorny Karabakh from Azerbaijan in
a 1990s war that killed 30,000 people. Despite years of negotiations
since a 1994 ceasefire, the two sides have still not signed a peace
deal.
Nagorny Karabakh is still recognised as part of Azerbaijan by the
United Nations and anyone visiting the territory — which is only
accessible by road from Armenia — risks being blacklisted by Baku.
Azerbaijan has threatened to take back the disputed region by force if
negotiations do not yield results, while Armenia has vowed to
retaliate against any military action.
Ruled by strongman President Ilham Aliyev, who took over when his
father Heydar, a former KGB officer and Communist-era boss, died in
2003, Azerbaijan is gearing up for presidential elections this autumn.
Human rights activists have accused the government of stepping up a
campaign to stifle opposition and strangle dissent in the run-up to
the poll.
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