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VIEWS FROM YEREVAN: KARABAKH SHOULD BE OPENED NOT CLOSED
by David Stepanyan
arminfo
Wednesday, September 25, 13:05
Informal meetings of representatives of the Armenian and Azerbaijani
civic societies are quite rare. They meet only outside the region,
which makes such meetings expensive and not easy to organize. In
addition, Armenian analysts and civic society representatives cannot
travel to Azerbaijan, Director of the Caucasus Institute Alexander
Iskandaryan told ArmInfo.
"Meanwhile. foreign citizens visiting Nagorny Karabakh find themselves
in the 'black lists of personas non-grata' in Azerbaijan. I think,
it is necessary to do everything quite on the contrary in order to
avoid paranoidism characteristic to close societies. Karabakh should
be opened not closed. It is necessary to try to talk to the Karabakh
people. After all, Baku considers Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, but
the citizens of Azerbaijan cannot travel to Karabakh," he said. In
this light, the political scientist believes that Baku's policy is
a failed PR.
Earlier on 23 September, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry has removed
four foreigners from the list of the people, who have visited the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic. A member of Russia's State Duma Alexei
Mitrofanov, head of the Moscow office 'Voice of America' James Brook ,
Johns Hopkins University students Ivan Benovich and Nicholas Vondra
are those 'happy' people that have been removed from the list of
"persona non grata" after expressing their sincere regret for visiting
Nagorno Karabakh.
They appealed to the government of Azerbaijan and expressed their
remorse, after which their names were removed from the list of
"persona non grata". Azerbaijan has already blacklisted 300 prominent
and well-known people who 'dared' to visit Nagorno Karabakh 'without
permission of Baku.'
by David Stepanyan
arminfo
Wednesday, September 25, 13:05
Informal meetings of representatives of the Armenian and Azerbaijani
civic societies are quite rare. They meet only outside the region,
which makes such meetings expensive and not easy to organize. In
addition, Armenian analysts and civic society representatives cannot
travel to Azerbaijan, Director of the Caucasus Institute Alexander
Iskandaryan told ArmInfo.
"Meanwhile. foreign citizens visiting Nagorny Karabakh find themselves
in the 'black lists of personas non-grata' in Azerbaijan. I think,
it is necessary to do everything quite on the contrary in order to
avoid paranoidism characteristic to close societies. Karabakh should
be opened not closed. It is necessary to try to talk to the Karabakh
people. After all, Baku considers Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, but
the citizens of Azerbaijan cannot travel to Karabakh," he said. In
this light, the political scientist believes that Baku's policy is
a failed PR.
Earlier on 23 September, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry has removed
four foreigners from the list of the people, who have visited the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic. A member of Russia's State Duma Alexei
Mitrofanov, head of the Moscow office 'Voice of America' James Brook ,
Johns Hopkins University students Ivan Benovich and Nicholas Vondra
are those 'happy' people that have been removed from the list of
"persona non grata" after expressing their sincere regret for visiting
Nagorno Karabakh.
They appealed to the government of Azerbaijan and expressed their
remorse, after which their names were removed from the list of
"persona non grata". Azerbaijan has already blacklisted 300 prominent
and well-known people who 'dared' to visit Nagorno Karabakh 'without
permission of Baku.'