Irina Berchiyan, an Armenian woman born in Baku, returned to her native city for the first time in 30 years. She left it because of the Karabakh conflict. In the period of 1988-1992, about 360,000 Armenians had to leave Azerbaijan. Of them, about 2300 people were not granted Armenian citizenship. Their return to their homeland, even for a short visit, is usually accompanied with difficulties in crossing the border. According to the official data of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), for the first half of 2017, 25 Russian citizens with Armenian surnames were denied entry to Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani MFA explained that "certain security measures" had been introduced for Russian citizens of Armenian origin in order to avoid possible provocations. A visit of Irina Berchiyan to Baku was made possible by the "Armenia-Azerbaijan Civil Peace Platform". The NGO advocates the settlement of the conflict on the conditions of Azerbaijan. With the assistance of the "Armenia-Azerbaijan Civil Peace Platform", 12 ethnic Armenians have already visited Baku, and five more applications are under consideration. Meanwhile, the parties to the Karabakh conflict continue to regularly accuse each other of discrimination against their citizens. For details, see:
[ Ссылка ]
