Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

U.S. and Swiss astronauts on Azerbaijan's "blacklist"

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • U.S. and Swiss astronauts on Azerbaijan's "blacklist"

    Xinhua General News Service, China
    September 18, 2012 Tuesday 6:40 PM EST

    U.S. and Swiss astronauts on Azerbaijan's "blacklist"

    BAKU Sept. 18


    The former United States astronaut Charles Duke and Swiss astronaut
    Claude Nicollier will be included in Azerbaijan's blacklist, spokesman
    of the Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry Elman Abdullayev told media on
    Tuesday.

    According to Abdullayev, the two astronauts will be denied visit to
    Azerbaijan, as they have traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh, a region which
    is officially part of Azerbaijan, but under Armenian control, without
    the approval of Azerbaijan.

    "Traveling to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan without a
    permission of Azerbaijan is illegal," he said.

    He explained that those who visited Nagorno-Karabakh and seven
    surrounding regions of Azerbaijan occupied by neighboring Armenia will
    be included in the "list of undesirable persons."

    According to the Armenian media, Duke and Nicollier traveled to
    Nagorno Karabakh to take part in the conference titled "Human and
    Space" on Sept. 16.

    The landlocked mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh is the subject
    of an unresolved dispute between Azerbaijan, in which it lies, and its
    Armenian majority, backed by neighboring Armenia.

    In 1988, towards the end of Soviet rule, Azerbaijani troops and
    Armenian secessionists began a bloody war which left this region in
    the hands of Armenians when a truce was signed in 1994.

    Negotiations have so far failed to produce a permanent peace
    agreement, and the dispute remains one of post-Soviet Europe's "
    frozen conflicts".




    From: A. Papazian
Working...
X