Azerbaijan will Allow Journalist who Visited Karabakh to Enter Country After Conflict Resolved

Azerbaijan’s authorities may allow first deputy editor of Ekho Moskvy (“Echo of Moscow”) radio station Sergei Buntman (pictured, right) to enter the country, but only after the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Azerbaijan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and the president’s personal representative on issues related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Araz Azimov in an interview with the radio station.

Recall, Buntman was declared a persona non-grata in Azerbaijan after he visited Nagorno-Karabakh and interviewed several senior leaders of the unrecognized republic.

Earlier, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Elkhan Polukhov had said:

“In connection with Buntman’s illegal visit to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, our embassy in Russia was issued an executive order to express our protest and bring the position of Azerbaijan’s leadership to Ekho Moskvy. The very same S. Buntman is already included in the list of those whose visit to Azerbaijan is extremely undesirable.”

Later, Ekho Moskvy editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov (pictured, left) said no journalist from Ekho Moskvy will go to Azerbaijan until first deputy editor Sergei Buntman can go.

“Let me also note that we have visa-free travel with Azerbaijan, and Russian citizens don’t need a special permit for entry into the country,” he added.