Foreign Ministry removes Georgian journalist from ‘black list’

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

Gurami Rogava, a journalist at the Georgian Imedi TV channel, was withdrawn from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s list of foreigners, who are persona non-grata in the country.

Rogava wrote a letter to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, in which he expressed respect for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of its internationally recognized borders.

Rogava also stated that he visited the occupied territories as he was uninformed about the illegality of such a visit.

In his letter, he apologized to the people of Azerbaijan and noted that his visit did not mean to promote the illegal regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

The journalist’s appeal was reviewed and it was decided to exclude him from the Foreign Ministry’s ‘black list’.

Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly one million were displaced as a result of the war. Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions are temporarily out of the control of Azerbaijan as a result of Armenia’s aggression.

Unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied regions of Azerbaijan are considered illegal and individuals who pay such visits are included in the ministry’s “black list”.

The list of persona non grata banned from visiting Azerbaijan includes MPs, media persons, businessmen, entertainers, and others, who violated Azerbaijan’s borders and showed disrespect to the sovereignty and territorial unity of the country.