Armenians have invented a new trick to make it more convenient for foreign tourists to visit the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
Yerevan has hosted a presentation of the first guidebook on Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh in Italian, in connection with which officials of Azerbaijan have already expressed their displeasure.
Novosti-Armenia reports that the author of a guide, a spokeswoman for the marketing company Travelmark Nadia Pasqual said the guide is prepared by Travelmark with the support of the national competitiveness fund of Armenia and the Office for Tourism of "the government of Karabakh (an unrecognized breakaway region).
"Italian tourists, of course, are interested in visiting Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. We need to further promote these trends among the Italian tourists "- Pasqual said, stressing that the main focus today is the cultural and religious tourism.
Pasqual added that the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Italy has expressed his protest on the publication of the Guide, which also included Nagorno-Karabakh. According to her, "the Azerbaijani Ambassador was invited to first read the guide and only then draw conclusions."
1news.az contacted spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Elkhan Polukhov on this matter who noted that the request has already been sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Italy to study the project of the Italian travel agencies and Travelmark. It will also be found out whether the information spread by the Armenian side on behalf of the Italian travel agency is reliable, since the Armenian media often garble facts or misinform public.
"This is not the first time that the Armenian side, including the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia and the so-called Office for Tourism attempt to represent Nagorno-Karabakh at different exhibitions or events", said Coordinator of the National Project of tourism development in Azerbaijan Faik Gurbatov .
According to him, Armenians have invented a new trick to make it more convenient for foreign tourists to visit the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
"Many tourists refuse to visit Nagorno-Karabakh, because then they become persona non-grata in Azerbaijan, as they have a passport stamp of having visited Nagorno-Karabakh. And now, to solve this "uncomfortable” situation, the Armenian side offers the tourists a loose leaf, which indicates that they have visited the occupied Azerbaijani territories. So then the tourist can safely throw away this leaflet while his passport will not a stamp, which means that nobody knows about his visit to Nagorno-Karabakh ", said Gurbatov.
Gurbatov noted that his organization have repeatedly averted the attempts of the Armenian side to advertise and present the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh at international events and the justified indignation of Azerbaijan has always been understood by the organizers of these events.
"As for the presentation of the Italian guidebook on Armenia and the occupied Azerbaijani territories, it is a very serious signal which the Azerbaijani side will have to investigate it”, said Gurbatov. He noted that through their channels they will explore and seek explanations from the Italian travel agency, which decided to carry tourists to the occupied Azerbaijani lands.
A guide on Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh in Italian, consisting of about 350 pages, features " history, culture and religion of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh”, is supplemented by photographs of sights in Armenia and will “add to a number of Polaris famous Italian tourist guidebooks.
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