Counselor of Azerbaijani Embassy to US responds to article of "New York Times"

Baku. 16 May. REPORT.AZ/ The political and legal counselor of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the US, Mammad Talibov responded to the article published in "New York Times" newspaper on tourism opportunities and the life in Armenia and the occupied Azerbaijani territories Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Report informs referring to "New York Times" that the author did not tell the full and tragic story of the illegal occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the displacement of nearly one million Azerbaijani citizens: "The author failed to inform the readers that by traveling to the occupied territories illegally, they would violate the Azerbaijani laws and international rules and never mentions a number of travel warnings about the area, including the ones issued by the U.S. Department of State. Similarly, such unauthorized travel, including his own visit, results in restrictions on future travel to Azerbaijan."

Referring to the International Crisis Group M.Talibov, the internally displaced people “have to cope with automatic gunfire, land mines, unexploded munitions, water contamination and fires deliberately set to fields and forests as a military tactic: "Sadly, based on the article, the reader might consider the region to be a tourist destination akin to any other."

The Embassy counselor noted that, Azerbaijan continues to work toward a peaceful resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict so that displaced persons and tourists alike may return to this beautiful land.