8-Year-Old Boy as a National Security Threat for Azerbaijan

• 05.31.2016, 13:52
•  Region,  World,  Armenia

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''Sending Armenian child to Baku airport is a deliberate provocation,''  a member of the Azerbaijani Institute for War and Peace, Shahin Rzayev wrote this on his Facebook, commenting on the decision of the Azerbaijani border guards decision not to let the 8-year-old Ghukas Vardanyan to enetr Azerbaijan. The boy was accompanied by his parents - mother and stepfather (by the way they are citizens of Russia and of Russian nationality).

"Was it impossible to warn about it in advance?  You know well that we are in a war situation!" Rzayev wrote.

Indeed, during war time the practice of preventing from entering a country is a common issue. For example, some countries are in a state of conflict, war or ideological confrontation with each other, (Israel and some Arab countries, for instance). In general, these restrictions are fixed in the legislation of the given state. However, Baku has not such a fixed law and Azerbaijani officials do not announce that ethnic Armenians are prohibited to enter this country, but border guards have consistently banned Armenians from entering the country. Even those, who just had Armenian surnames but were not Armenians, were not allowed to enter Azerbaijan. The Russian journalist Anna Sahakyan in 2013 was not allowed to enter Baku to cover the Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit due to the fact that in her passport she had an Armenian surname, even though her nationality was Russian, and Sahakyan was only the surname of her Armenian husband.

Azerbaijan not only prohibits the entry of individuals in any way connected with Armenia, but also the members of the Armenian delegation in various international forums, which take place in Baku. In 2010, due to the illegal actions of the Azerbaijani representation of "Aeroflot" airline, the Armenian delegation was not able to fly from Moscow to Baku on the 64th General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union. Such cases are endless. Azerbaijani authorities do not conceal the fact that Armenians are banned from entry to the country, but in the case of Ghukas Vardanyan, Baku tries to justify itself, since the decision to deport the 8-year-old boy caused a strong reaction in the media, as well as in social networks.

Azerbaijani press claims that the boy was not allowed to enter Azerbaijan, because there was no corresponding permission of his biological father. Azerbaijani media, when bringing this argument, forget that this boy could hardly get to Baku without this permission.

Interestingly, the Azerbaijani users of social networks blame the boy's parents in this situation. In their opinion, it is illogical that the Russian boy's parents with the Armenian surname decide to come to Baku as Azerbaijan is at war with Armenia for more than 20 years.

This is somewhat strange logic, given that Azerbaijan has been requiring the return of the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Republic for more than 20 years. Such statements once again confirm that in this country there are no security guarantees for people with Armenian origin, even for children, and not only by the government, but also by its citizens.