Foreign Ministry investigates foreigners' illegal visit to occupied territories

Information about foreign citizens who illegally visited the occupied Azerbaijani territories by grossly violating Azerbaijan's laws is being investigated, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a message on October 8.

The ministry was commenting on a visit of Armenian prime minister’s spouse Anna Hakobyan together with a group of women from Russia to Azerbaijan’s NagornoKarabakh region occupied by Armenia.

As soon as these foreign citizens are identified, the decision on adding their names into the list of foreigners whose entry to the Republic of Azerbaijan is denied will be made, the message said.

“Further to our already stated position on the “Women for peace” initiative of Armenia, we would like to reiterate that those who want peace would not continue the war, those who want to prevent the loss of lives would not keep the territories of other states under military occupation and those who invite women and mothers to peace would not send their sons to the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan for military service,” the message said.

Names of any individuals paying unauthorized visits to NagornoKarabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia are included in the Foreign Ministry’s list of “undesirable persons.” The ministry and diplomatic missions pay special attention to the illegal activity in the occupied areas of the country.

Baku has repeatedly warned foreign officials and diplomats of illegality of visits to its territories that are occupied by Armenia, calling them contradictory to international law. The work is constantly carried out to prevent such illegal actions.

Earlier, spokesperson of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva told Trend that Azerbaijan will raise an issue of the initiative of the Armenian prime minister’s wife Anna Hakobyan to organize an illegal visit of Russia’s women to Azerbaijan’s occupied territories before the Russian Foreign Ministry.

As a woman and mother, I can understand Hakobyan’s campaign in terms of humanitarian principles, Abdullayeva said.

“The main purpose of this campaign is allegedly to prevent the deaths of young soldiers, innocent people. Then it is necessary to thoroughly approach this problem and answer the question: What are the soldiers of Armenia doing in the territory of Azerbaijan?” she added.

“Hakobyan incorrectly chose targets for her humanitarian mission, because in order to prevent the deaths of young people, she must first of all start from the society in Armenia, to urge Armenia to stop occupation of Azerbaijani lands and call on Armenian women and mothers to refrain from sending their children to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan,” Abdullayeva noted.

She went on to say that it is obvious that this campaign in its current form, especially in anticipation of the election, is intended for the internal audience of Armenia.

“However, it should be taken into account that such campaigns, primarily attempts under the guise of a “humanitarian mission” to motivate a group of women from Russia to visit the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, aren’t consistent with the mandate of Russia as co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, don’t serve to the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and don’t correspond to the spirit of the conversation between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in Dushanbe. This issue will be raised before the Russian Foreign Ministry by the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow,” Abdullayeva said.

The “peacekeeping” activity of the spouse of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan looks quite doubtful. The ideas of the first lady of the country generate electricity like Metsamor NPP, and they are also not good for the environment.

At the end of last week, Anna Hakobyan brought a group of Russian public activists to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. The visit, provocative and pursuing exclusively propaganda purposes, ended with nothing, and it is absolutely clear that there will be no continuation of this senseless initiative. This voyage will not bring peace to the region and, moreover, will not force Azerbaijan to give up its right to resolve the issue by force of arms if there is no other way. It is even "funny" to hear how Hakobyan speaks about "peacekeeping".

A country occupying the territory of a neighboring state, conducting ethnic cleansing and spilling rivers of innocent blood, does not have the moral right to talk about peacemaking and to call for nonviolence. It is clear that Armenia is afraid of war, but it will not be possible to avoid it by sending a female landing party. For this, Yerevan should take much more serious and concrete measures, prove its commitment to peace, and not only in words, to which no one believes anymore.