Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry excluded name of a U.S. citizen from the list of undesirable persons

Baku. 4 September. REPORT.AZ/ Addressing to the Azerbaijani government, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, journalist of the magazine "National Geographic", a U.S. citizen Paul Salopek asked to exclude his name from the list of undesirable persons.

Report was told in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A citizen of the USA, National Geographic Fellow and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Paul Salopek addressed an official letter to the Government of Azerbaijan asking for removal his name from the “List of Foreign citizens illegally visited to occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan”.

P.Salopek reaffirmed his full respect to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders and its laws and pointed out that his visit to the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan by Armenia was not intentional and he was unaware about the consequences of that visit. He stressed that the visit should not give a meaning of his disrespect to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Expressing his apology regarding the visit, P.Salopek mentioned that his visit in no way to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia served for the promotion of illegal regime established in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, P.Salopek expressed his apology to the Government and People of Azerbaijan for an unauthorized visit to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and attested that he would refrain from such visit to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in the future.

The appeal by P.Salopek was considered and the removal of his name from the list was decided.

He has also been allowed to visit Azerbaijan within the “Out of Eden Walk” project, which involves walking across the planet in the footsteps of the first human beings.