19:53, 22 September 2017

Three US congressmen put on Azerbaijani "black list"

The members of the US House of Representatives David Valadao, Frank Pallone and Tulsi Gubbard have been put on the list of undesirable persons for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 6, 2016, the MFA also put on the above list Bruno Le Roux, the head of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh. On February 23, Azerbaijan announced wanted the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), who had been observers at the referendum in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The list of undesirable persons was first made public by the Azerbaijani MFA in 2013: it includes the foreigners who are prohibited from entering the country because of visiting Nagorno-Karabakh without Baku’s permit.

According to Khikmet Gadjiev, the head of the press service of the Azerbaijani MFA, by their actions, the above US congressmen "damage the Congress’ prestige in the eyes of the Azerbaijani and international public."

Frank Pallone, a co-chairman of the Committee on Armenian Issues in the US Congress, and Tulsi Gubbard, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, have visited cultural and religious centres in Shushi and Stepanakert and spoke at the parliament, the “lragir.am” writes.

According to the edition, the congressman David Valadao monitored the demining works conducted by the HALO Trust organization.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.