Yerevan /Mediamax/. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated that citizens of different states having Armenian surnames “are free to visit Azerbaijan.”

Aliyev stated this during the meeting with the heads of Russian media at the TASS Chief Editors’ Club.

In response to the question of the editor-in-chief of the RT Margarita Simonyan that citizens with Armenian surnames are not allowed to visit Azerbaijan, Aliyev said that this information is untrue and there is “no entry ban on an ethnic basis” in the republic.

“Numerous visits are evidence of this. They participate in sports events such as the European games, the team from Armenia participated. I even remember that I personally handed a silver medal to one representative of Ukraine, an Armenian by nationality,” Aliyev said.

He also reminded that the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II visited Baku. “He visited the Armenian church in Baku and was surprised that we keep more than 5 thousand books in Armenian in this church, he himself witnessed this. I can give many such examples: deputies, public figures, and citizens of other countries with Armenian roots,” Aliyev said.

“We are responsible for the safety of our citizens and our guests, therefore, our request was that if citizens of Armenia or people with Armenian surnames come to Azerbaijan, the relevant bodies should be informed, in particular, when it comes to Russia. There were cases when entry was denied, but it happened precisely because these formalities were not observed,” the Azerbaijani president said.