Azerbaijani Armenophobia hits Turks: Turkish athlete Zafer Noyan, being taking for Armenian, was not allowed to enter Baku
Azerbaijani authorities sent Turkish athlete Zafer Noyan, who arrived in Baku to attend the European Arm-wrestling Championship, back to his homeland. As the Azerbaijani portal Sportbox.az quotes Turkish media, the reason for this was that Noyan was taken for an Armenian in Baku.
Turkish athlete argued that he was not an Armenian, however it did not help him and he was deported to Turkey.
Armenophobia in Azerbaijan is also evident by the fact that people with Armenian surnames or the surnames that are similar to Armenian ones are not allowed to enter the republic. Thus, in 2010 because of illegal actions of the "Aeroflot" representation of Azerbaijan the Armenian delegation was not able to leave Moscow to Baku for the 64th General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union.
In June 2011, a photojournalist of the Bloomberg agency, a citizen of the United States and Russia Diana Markosian was deported from Baku to Istanbul because of her Armenian origin. MFA of Azerbaijan confirmed that the Armenian origin of the photojournalist of Bloomberg agency has served a reason for her deportation: "During her stay in Azerbaijan Markosian will face security problems because of her Armenian origin."
In July 2011, two players of Russian "Torpedo" club from Armavir were deported from Azerbaijan immediately after arriving at the airport of Ganja.
In October 2011, representatives of “Azerbaijan Airlines” (AZAL), at the airport "Domodedovo" the representative of "AvtoVAZ" citizen of Russian federation Sergei Gyurjian was removed from Moscow - Baku flight, together with his Israeli colleague Shuhmahera Demitra, the Director of “LADA International Limited”, who were involved in the delegation in Baku for committing a deal to import LADA cars to the Republic of Azerbaijan.
At the same time, the head of the press service of "Azerbaijani Railways" Nadir Azmammadov stated that "the entry of those having Armenia nationality, as well as citizens of other countries of Armenian origin is officially banned in Azerbaijan."
In December 2012, at the Baku airport, a Russian journalist from Kabardino-Balkaria, Sufyan Zhemukhova, was detained. The cause of the almost failed deportation was the name of the journalist - Sufyan that reminded the Azerbaijani border guards the ending of the Armenian surnames.