Azerbaijan: Photojournalist detained, deported · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

whatwaswritten, the blog of Global Voices author Leyla Najafli, translates a story from RFE's Azeri service reporting that Diana Markosyan, a photojournalist from Bloomberg, was detained at Baku airport earlier today. The American-Russian dual citizen of Armenian origin attempted to enter Azerbaijan without a visa as CIS citizens can. However, her request for press accreditation had been rejected and Bloomberg told to replace before traveling to the country due to what the authorities claimed was the inability to guarantee her safety. Armenia and Azerbaijan still remain locked in a bitter conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh and citizens of both can not enter the other without National Security Service approval. This sometimes extends in both countries  to foreign citizens of Armenian and Azerbaijani origin, but the situation is considered to be especially bad in Azerbaijan despite some high level Armenian visits in recent years.