Japanese blogger apologizes for illegal visit to occupied lands

aku has removed another foreigner from its list of undesirable persons following an official appeal, said the Foreign Ministry.

A Japanese citizen, independent blogger Natsumi Daizen addressed an official letter to the Azerbaijani embassy in Japan, in which she asked to remove her name from the Foreign Ministry’s list of people declared personae non gratae.

In her letter, the blogger reaffirmed her full respect to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders.

Natsumi Daizen also stated that she visited the occupied Azerbaijani territories as she was uninformed about the illegality of such a visit.

She apologized to the people of Azerbaijan and noted that her visit in no way served for the promotion of the illegal regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani lands.

The blogger’s appeal was considered and it was decided to exclude her from the Foreign Ministry’s ‘Black list’.

Visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other Armenian-occupied regions of Azerbaijan, uncoordinated with the Azerbaijani side, are deemed illegal and the names of the visitors are included in the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s list of people declared personae non gratae.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal, but they have not been enforced to this day.