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Joseph Simitian, California State Senator of Armenian descent, who visited Baku a week ago, has been officially banned from entering Azerbaijan. He has been blacklisted by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

According to Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev, the Senator has been punished for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azadlyg reports that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had a high-level meeting with Joe Simitian a couple of days ago. During the meeting, Aliyev stressed the development of the bilateral relations and the necessity of mutual visits for expanding cooperation between the two states. Moreover, the Azerbaijani President expressed satisfaction with the delegation’s visit to Azerbaijan, headed by Joe Simitian.

“Azerbaijan’s leadership was well aware that the State Senator is of Armenian descent and has repeatedly visited NKR. The Azerbaijani government apparently tried to get propaganda dividends from the State Senator’s meeting with Ilham Aliyev, but soon they faced the fact that Simitian visited NKR, and “the spirit of patriotism” awoke in them. The result was that Azerbaijan once again found itself in a comic situation,” Azadlyg reported.