ArmInfo.The actions of the Azerbaijani authorities towards Russian citizens with Armenian roots are not normal, it is a clear manifestation of xenophobia, accompanied by an outright violation of human rights, regardless of the country of residence and citizenship.
This viewpoint was expressed by the head of the Armenian branch of the CIS Institute, political scientist Alexander Margarov, referring to today's statement of Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov, who reacted to the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry about the problems with the admission of Russian citizens with an Armenian surname to the territory of Azerbaijan.
According to him, this behavior of the authorities of Azerbaijan once again confirms the thesis that Baku is trying to give etachocracy to its regime. "We will not talk about the fact that the Azerbaijani authorities are implementing an assimilation policy in respect to the national minorities that originally live in these territories. By such actions, Azerbaijan is trying to build a predominantly Turkic population and, without officially declaring, is trying to create a mono-national country," the political scientist said.
Today in an interview with RIA Novosti, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, referring to the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry about the problems with the admission of Russian citizens with an Armenian surname to the country, appealed to the insulting and false thesis about the capture by Armenians of 20% of the territory, about hundreds of thousands of refugees and settlers, about the girl who died from shelling. This, he said, will cause a big emotional surge in the Azerbaijani society, has become a source of serious surprise and misunderstanding. Turning to the issue of a peaceful settlement, Mammadyarov stated the need to "shift the negotiation process from the ground." "This will enable the temporarily displaced persons to return to their places of permanent residence. In parallel, security issues will find solutions, communications will resume, the economic factor will start, people will have confidence and the suspicion and resentment existing among Armenians and Azerbaijanis will gradually disappear. And sometimes we get the impression that they are trying to make us accept the situation as a fait accompli. By the way, people of Armenian nationality - citizens of different countries, including Armenia, repeatedly visited Azerbaijan on these or other occasions. But all these were trips appropriately organized and prearranged and prepared. In this case, no problems have arisen. We tried to convey this to the Russian side through diplomatic channels," he said.
On July 6, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the situation with the citizens of the Russian Federation of Armenian origin. "In connection with numerous media questions about the ban on entry to Azerbaijan, Russian citizens are forced to state that Russian citizens who come to this country are indeed discriminated on ethnic grounds. Since the beginning of this year, 25 citizens of the Russian Federation have been denied on entry to Azerbaijan. As a rule, they were subjected to many hours of detention at the Baku airport (in some cases - without food, water and medical care, in one case it was a woman with a four-year-old child), and then forcibly sent at her own expense. "Reason" for such mockeries were Armenian names, names or patronymics of our citizens. There were, however, cases when persons with Russian names, names and patronymics were interrogated for the identification of "Armenian ancestors". All this looks wild, not to mention the direct violation of the rights of Russian citizens, contrary to the spirit and letter of the Russian-Azerbaijani Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Security of July 3, 1997, the intergovernmental agreement on visa-free travel of citizens dated July 3, 1997 As well as the Declaration on Friendship and Strategic Partnership between Russia and Azerbaijan of July 3, 2008. We repeatedly, including through official notations of the Russian Embassy in Baku and the Russian Foreign Ministry, demanded to stop this outrage practice to conduct proceedings and give a proper assessment of the behavior of officials at the International Airport named Heydar Alieva. They proceeded, including from the fact that Azerbaijan positions itself as an example of national and religious tolerance, multiculturalism, and recently also declares its intention to establish an Azerbaijani-Armenian public dialogue.
But our expectations were not justified. The investigation of the incidents was not conducted. In response, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that "to prevent undesirable excesses, Azerbaijan is forced to apply appropriate regulations in relation to a number of persons." We consider this answer vague and unsatisfactory. It, unfortunately, shows that Russian citizens arriving in Azerbaijan still risk being victims of arbitrariness. We continue to demand the cessation of outrageous discriminatory practices that are incompatible with friendly relations between the two countries. Of course, we will draw conclusions from the current situation, "the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.