STEPANAKERT. – The Information and Public Relations Department of the Republic of Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic/NKR MFA) has issued a comment on Azerbaijan’s banning German Bundestag member Albert Weiler’s entry into the country.

“Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s blacklisting of foreign citizens visiting Artsakh is a gross violation of the rights to free movement and to getting reliable information and is an attempt to impose its one-sided and distorted viewpoint on the international community,” the comment reads. “We consider such actions of Azerbaijan unacceptable and believe that if they remain without the due assessment by the international community, it will be increasingly difficult to return Baku to a constructive track. The time has come to establish international mechanisms to deter Azerbaijan from destructive steps.

“In this regard, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh Masis Mayilian has invited Albert Weiler to visit Artsakh again at his convenience to discuss the issues of cooperation with the Germany-South Caucasus Parliamentary Group of the German Bundestag. We are convinced that the visits of MPs and other officials to Artsakh, regardless of Baku’s ‘black list,’ will become an important signal on the inadmissibility of using confrontation and isolation as a means for solving regional problems.

“To remind, the Azerbaijani authorities have banned the entry into the country of blacklisted Member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ‘Christian Democratic Union’ Party, Albert Weiler, in the framework of the forthcoming visit of Mrs. Merkel to the South Caucasus states.”