On 17 October, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated that citizens of Russia with Armenian surnames may visit Azerbaijan. If they plan to enter, Russian citizens must inform their embassy in Moscow about it first, in order to avoid “emotional background” because of Karabakh conflict. “We have [a] visa-free regime with Russia and knowing [about the visits] beforehand… [will] prevent any situations that may appear because of emotional background in Azerbaijan because of the existing conflict. We usually speak about this issue very openly with the Russian side,” he said.
On 11 January, Russia renewed its demands for lifting the ban for its ethnic Armenian citizens. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the “blatant violation” of their rights is “incompatible with friendly ties between the two countries.” Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry rejected Zakharova’s remarks as “provocative” and “anti-Azerbaijani.” The ministry defended the travel ban, blaming it on Armenia’s “policy of aggression against Azerbaijan.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the Azerbaijani statements as “going beyond the bounds of diplomatic propriety.” “Depending on a meaningful reaction of the Azerbaijani side, we will decide our further steps,” it warned in a statement. The officials in Baku stated that the Russian statement amounts to an ultimatum and contradicts “the basis of strategic relations between Azerbaijan and Russia.”
According to Zakharova, there were at least 16 cases of Russian nationals denied entry to Azerbaijan “on ethnic grounds” in 2018. She said that the citizens of Russia have been kept in the airport for hours, and then were deported violently, with no official reason mentioned. The last recorded case was Russian citizen Kristina Gevorkyan who wanted to spend her New Year holidays in Azerbaijan but was stopped at the passport control in Baku and held there for 13 hours. Azerbaijani MFA described the situation with Gevorkyan as an attempt to “exaggerate a private case,” adding that there are no problems in Azerbaijani-Russian relations.
