Civilnet
Jutta Sommerbauer, a journalist with the Austrian newspaper Die Presse, who was meant to accompany Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz to Baku, was denied a visa to enter Azerbaijan, reports Der Standart.
The journalist was only made aware of her persona non grata status upon applying for a visa at the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Austria.
The newspaper notes that the reporter was unsuccessful in solving the visa issue, even with the help of the foreign minister.
Although Sommerbauer believes she was denied a visa because of her articles criticizing Azerbaijan, the Embassy says otherwise. The Embassy of Azerbaijan argues that her visa denial is due to the fact that she tried to hide her visit to Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Embassy of Azerbaijan, on their part, issued the following statement, “Jutta Sommerbauer was blacklisted after her visit to occupied territories of Azerbaijan [NKR] without the permission of official Baku. The journalist can obtain a visa only after she officially apologizes to Azerbaijan.”
Sommerbauer has not denied that she visited Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh in 2011, which was accompanied with an article.
Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz is set to visit Armenia on September 8-9.
The practice of denying foreign nationals entry visas if they have traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh is not a new development. The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan issued a statement on August 5, 2013 explaining its position on the matter. In the statement, it issues a warning to all nationals of foreign countries wishing to travel to Nagorno-Karabakh. It says that any visit without the consent of the Republic of Azerbaijan is considered a “violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan and as a breach of national legislation, as well as relevant norms and principles of international law.” The statement goes on to say, “The Ministry would like to remind that those who traveled to the occupied territories without prior permission of the Republic of Azerbaijan will be denied the entry to the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
To date, over 300 people have been declared persona non grata by the Azerbaijani government and are denied entry visas to the country. The list includes politicians, members of parliament, senators, researchers and journalists from all over the world.
Read this story in Armenian.
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