Russian reaction to checks on Russian citizens of Armenian ethnicity incomprehensible - Azeri Foreign Ministry
BAKU. July 6 (Interfax) - The reaction of the Russian Foreign Ministry to the practice of conducting checks on Russian citizens of Armenian ethnicity on entry to Azerbaijan is surprising, the Azeri Foreign Ministry said.
"A repeat statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry outside the forms of diplomatic ethics on the question of checking the Russian citizens of Armenian origin entering Azerbaijan is surprising and incomprehensive. This statement is inconsistent with the spirit of the strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Russia," the Azeri Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
In the 25 years of the two countries' diplomatic relations this issue has never made the agenda, the statement said.
"So it is hard to explain the reason for such Russian activeness on this issue," the ministry said.
Russian citizens of Armenian origin have previously visited Azerbaijan many times on prior notice and warning, the ministry said. "When notified and warned beforehand, the Azeri side regularly created conditions for Russian citizens of Armenian origin visiting Azerbaijan. There were no problems here," the statement says.
To date hundreds of ethnic Armenians of Russian or other citizenships have visited Azerbaijan, the statement said.
"With its deep-rooted multicultural traditions, Azerbaijan, where representatives of various ethnicities freely co-exist, and guided by the principles of international law and national laws, and by the interests of national security, makes its own decision whether or not to let foreign citizens in," the statement says.
As a co-chairman of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Russia is perfectly aware of the long-standing Armenian occupation of 20% of Azerbaijan's territory and of the presence of over one million of Azeri refugees and displaced persons, the statement said, recalling the death on July 4, 2017, of a two-year-old girl and her grandmother as a result of Armenian shelling.
"Russia attaching such interest to this issue (the Azerbaijan entry procedure for Russian citizens of Armenian origin) at this very sensitive period raises a host of serious questions," the statement says.
It is unclear why Russia has shown such strong interest in this practice, whereas other countries pay no attention to it at all, the Azeri foreign ministry said.
Earlier on Thursday the Russian Foreign Ministry's department of information and press issued a commentary conforming media reports about ethnic discrimination against Russian citizens visiting Azerbaijan.
