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OVERBOARD: RUSSIAN CITIZEN WAS DENIED BOARDING AZERI AIRLINER BECAUSE OF HIS ARMENIAN SURNAME
By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow
02.11.11 | 15:53
Popular Russian radio and TV anchor, journalist Vladimir Solovyov
declared a few days ago that the Azeri authorities' attitude towards
Armenians has nothing to de with their citizenship, but is pure
manifestation of racism, just as Nazis treated the Jews at the time.
"Even one drop of Armenian blood to them is a subject of wild,
inhuman, I would even say, beastly, hatred. To me as a Jew that hatred
outright reminds of the tragedy of my nation and the Holocaust,"
Solovyov stressed.
What triggered this response and agitated certain layers of Russian
society was an incident when Russian citizen Sergey Gyurjian, head
of export sales at AutoVaz Russian automobile manufacturer, was not
allowed to take a Moscow-Baku flight operated by AZAL Azeri air company
because of his Armenian surname. (A Russian citizen, born in Moscow,
Gurjian was flying to Azerbaijan to take part in the opening ceremony
of an AutoVaz affiliate there.)
Gyurjyan claims that at Moscow's Domodedovo airport AZAL company
employee Svetlana Rodionova refused to check him in, explaining it by
the company administration instruction not to check-in passengers with
Armenian surnames. "That's the instruction, it's a security issue,"
Gyurjian quoted Ilgar Aliyev, representative of Azeri Airlines.
Moscow-based Kommersant, Russian daily online, reports that the
incident with Russian citizens has reached the Russian president's
administration. Assistant to the President Arkady Dvorkovich qualified
the incident in his Twitter as "outrage".
Addressing "our dear Azeri friends," Solovyov commented: "It is not
an Armenian that you have insulted, but the Russian Federation and
each and every citizen of the Russian Federation, regardless of their
ethnic, national, religious and other roots."
Addressing Azeri immigrants in Russia, he said: "You, who have come
here in great numbers and are spitting on our culture, have you lost
your senses? You now feel entitled to openly discriminate against
Russian citizens in the territory of the Russian Federation? What do
you think you are doing?"
Vice President of Russian Union of Travel Industry Yuri Borzykin
believes that incident was a "single instance". However, he said,
that during their scheduled visit to Baku and negotiations with their
partners over further cooperation prospects, the union representatives
will inquire into the peculiarities of Russian citizens' visits
to Azerbaijan.
From: A. Papazian
By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow
02.11.11 | 15:53
Popular Russian radio and TV anchor, journalist Vladimir Solovyov
declared a few days ago that the Azeri authorities' attitude towards
Armenians has nothing to de with their citizenship, but is pure
manifestation of racism, just as Nazis treated the Jews at the time.
"Even one drop of Armenian blood to them is a subject of wild,
inhuman, I would even say, beastly, hatred. To me as a Jew that hatred
outright reminds of the tragedy of my nation and the Holocaust,"
Solovyov stressed.
What triggered this response and agitated certain layers of Russian
society was an incident when Russian citizen Sergey Gyurjian, head
of export sales at AutoVaz Russian automobile manufacturer, was not
allowed to take a Moscow-Baku flight operated by AZAL Azeri air company
because of his Armenian surname. (A Russian citizen, born in Moscow,
Gurjian was flying to Azerbaijan to take part in the opening ceremony
of an AutoVaz affiliate there.)
Gyurjyan claims that at Moscow's Domodedovo airport AZAL company
employee Svetlana Rodionova refused to check him in, explaining it by
the company administration instruction not to check-in passengers with
Armenian surnames. "That's the instruction, it's a security issue,"
Gyurjian quoted Ilgar Aliyev, representative of Azeri Airlines.
Moscow-based Kommersant, Russian daily online, reports that the
incident with Russian citizens has reached the Russian president's
administration. Assistant to the President Arkady Dvorkovich qualified
the incident in his Twitter as "outrage".
Addressing "our dear Azeri friends," Solovyov commented: "It is not
an Armenian that you have insulted, but the Russian Federation and
each and every citizen of the Russian Federation, regardless of their
ethnic, national, religious and other roots."
Addressing Azeri immigrants in Russia, he said: "You, who have come
here in great numbers and are spitting on our culture, have you lost
your senses? You now feel entitled to openly discriminate against
Russian citizens in the territory of the Russian Federation? What do
you think you are doing?"
Vice President of Russian Union of Travel Industry Yuri Borzykin
believes that incident was a "single instance". However, he said,
that during their scheduled visit to Baku and negotiations with their
partners over further cooperation prospects, the union representatives
will inquire into the peculiarities of Russian citizens' visits
to Azerbaijan.
From: A. Papazian