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The “blacklist” made by Azerbaijani authorities, which also includes 35 Americans, looks not serious, an anonymous official source told the reporter of Turan Azerbaijani news agency in Washington D.C.

The source notes: “The published list is politicized and doesn’t reflect a long-term strategy, that’s how a number of analytics think in Washington.”

According to the source, there are people among those 335 names that have never been to Nagorno-Karabakh. Most interestingly, some of them, who are included in the “blacklist,” visited the region on Azerbaijani government funding. For example, 16 students from John Hopkins University have recently spent 10 days in Baku, Yerevan, and some of them have visited Karabakh as well.

“We visited Azerbaijan and Armenia to study about Karabakh conflict and means of its resolution. The trip to Azerbaijan was organized by the Azerbaijani diplomatic academy, and the visit to Armenia by Caucasus Institute. The aim of the trip was to familiarize ourselves with the conflict and think out new ideas, which will help to solve the problem,” a participant on the “blacklist” Nikolay Vondra told the reporter of Turan agency. Vondra added that he didn’t visit Karabakh, but somehow ended up on the list.

Information sources of Turan have revealed that the trip of American students cost Azerbaijani tax payers more than $50,000.

According to the head of “Azerbaijanis of America for Democracy” NGO (AZAD) Elmar Shahtahtinskiy, “blacklists” are “not serious.” Shahtahtinskiy believes that the list is meant for internal propaganda.

“It’s yet another example of how Azerbaijani authorities spend millions of dollars on issues having nothing in common with problems of Azerbaijan, and especially the resolution of Karabakh conflict,” – said Shahtahtinskiy.

Turan reports that according to Armenian sources, tens of thousands have visited Nagorno-Karabakh in the past few years, while the “blacklist” of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs consists of only 350 people, some of which have never even been to Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to the article, the president of United Armenian Fund Harut Sasunyan wrote in his column in California Courier, “It’s amazing that none of the Armenian leaders is on the “blacklist,” despite the fact that they don’t keep their visits in the region secret.” “Perhaps, Azerbaijani officials consider Karabakh a part of Armenia that is why they don’t include the names of Armenian citizens?” notes Sasunyan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan has published a list of names, which became personae non gratae for Azerbaijan because of visiting Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and are denied access to the country. There are 335 people on the list. Specifically, the given list includes the member of the parliament of the Southern Wales state of Australia Gledice Berezhiklyan, Russian State Duma deputy Oleg Pokholkov, an employee at the Ukrainian magazine “Profil” Varvara Zhlutenko, reporter of “The Washington Post” in Moscow Will Englund, Austrian conductor Ernest Hoetzl, Spanish opera singer Monserrat Cabalye, and others.