9:13 AM PDT 6/9/2018
by
U.S. celebrity chef, writer and TV host Anthony Bourdain, who was found dead in a hotel room in France Friday of an apparent suicide, once received threats from authorities of Azerbaijan, prominent Israeli-Russian blogger Alexander Lapshin claimed in a post published on his Facebook account.
“The authorities of Azerbaijan harshly criticized him, threatened him,” Lapshin wrote.
Last October, Bourdain was declared persona non grata in Azerbaijan after filming one of the episodes of his culinary show Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown on the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh.
He was accused of “disrespect of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” the country’s foreign ministry said at the time.
Nagorny Karabakh is technically an Azeri territory, but it has been under control of neighboring Armeniasince the early 1990s.
Visiting Nagorny Karabakh without permission from Azeri authorities is considered a criminal offence in the country.
Police said Bourdain’s death was suicide, but Lapshin suggested that foul play might be involved. He brought up the example of Russian journalist and blogger Anton Nosik who died shortly after visiting Nagorny Karabakh.
Still, French authorities said they suspect no foul play.
