BLACK-LISTED IN AZERBAIJAN A ‘DISAPPOINTMENT I CAN LIVE WITH’
Sacramento Bee
Oct 6 2011
CA
State Sen. Joe Simitian, black-listed by the Azerbaijani government
after traveling to a separatist region while on a diplomatic visit,
was back at his Palo Alto office today, not entirely crestfallen.
“Let me put it to you this way,” the Democrat 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 predominately ethnic Armenian region and
the center of a longstanding dispute.
The visit violated Azerbaijani rules restricting travel in the
region – though the United States does not restrict travel there –
and Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan’s consul general in Los Angeles,
said Tuesday that Simitian was “basically black-listed … 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.
“I have not actually heard directly from anyone in Azerbaijan,”
he said.
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,” Simitian said.
“My view was that since I was halfway around the world, I would just
continue on. … Fundamentally, my view is that the public is better
served by elected officials with a broader world view rather than a
narrower world view.”
The Senate Rules Committee said lawmakers paid their own way. The
only public resources involved were travel expenses for two staffers
on the trip.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
