The foreign ministry of Azerbaijan included Yuri Snigiryov, a journalist of Izvestia, to the list of persona non grata. In late May the media reported that the deputy editor-in-chief of Echo Moskvy radio station, Sergey Buntman, is forbidden to visit Azerbaijan. Ahead these developments he interviewed the leader of non-recognized Karabakh Bako Saakyan.
The journalists visited Nagorny Karabakh in a way which couldn’t be ignored by the Azerbaijani authorities. The representatives of the Russian media visited Karabakh without letting Azerbaijan know, even though Russia, as well as other countries, considers Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. The journalists should know what would be the consequences of such visits. Moreover, official Baku has many times before stated that it is against visits of the occupied territories without report to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
No one has ever prevented deputies, journalists, representatives of public organizations of any country from visiting Nagorny Karabakh. The point is that people who want to visit occupied territories should let the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan know about it. There were no refusals in the history of modern Azerbaijan. What is the point of such a principal position of Russian journalists, who prefer to be persona non grata than state their plans officially?
Elmira Tariverdiyeva, Baku. Exclusively for VK.
