Anthony Bourdain Has Been Blacklisted by Azerbaijan After Visiting Disputed Territory

Anthony Bourdain is known for his hold-nothing-back approach to life and for visiting locations that are dangerous and often largely untrodden by Americans (hence the name of his CNN show, Parts Unknown). But now, the border-hopping chef, while out filming, may have stirred up a little controversy: He’s reportedly been banned from visiting the nation of Azerbaijan.

After traveling to Armenia last week, reportedly to film an episode of Parts Unknown, Bourdain visited Nagorno-Karabakh, a region that has long been under territorial dispute between Azerbaijan and an ethnically Armenian majority backed by the Armenian government. The Azerbaijani government explicitly forbids those seeking a visa to the country from visiting the region without permission from the foreign ministry. On the website for the Azerbaijani embassy in Washington, D.C., a section on visa regulations reads, “Without the explicit consent of and a visa issued by the authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan, a person, who made/makes a trip to the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan, will not be granted a visa to the Republic of Azerbaijan and will be deported in case of his/her future entrance.”

The U.S. State Department, while not having an official travel advisory for the region, does note in its website entry on visiting Azerbaijan that, “the U.S. Government is unable to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Nagorno-Karabakh,” and that “U.S. citizens of Armenian descent may encounter anti-Armenian sentiments in Azerbaijan.”

In short, while CNN did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Bourdain and team likely knew what they were getting into.

Bourdain was spotted last week meeting several Armenian celebrities, including enjoying an outdoors lunch in the disputed region with an Armenian journalist. Bourdain also posted a photo on Instagram of a military helicopter, captioned “Cameraman Jerry Risius ponders our chosen means of transport (Russian MI-8 MTV-1).” On Twitter, he thanked the leader of the rock group System of a Down, Serj Tankian, who is Armenian-American, for arranging the visit and “making it awesome.”

The posts did not escape the scrutiny of Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry, whose spokesman Hikmet Hajiyev responded to Bourdain’s tweet, preemptively accusing the episode—which has yet to air—of portraying the “ethnically cleansed land of #Azerbaijan by #Armenia,” and calling it “shameful and #immoral.” The spokesman later told Azerbaijani news agency APA that the trip is “under investigation.” BuzzFeed reported that it confirmed Bourdain was indeed added to a list of “undesirable persons” for “illegally visiting the occupied territories of Azerbaijan” via a Twitter DM from Hajiyev.

Hajiyev’s direct message to BuzzFeed read, “We confirm that for violation territorial integrity and sovereignty, as well as laws of Azerbaijan, A. Bourdain has been blacklisted.” The spokesman continued, “We do regret that he has made himself a propaganda tool to justify and disguise occupation of Azerbaijan’s lands by Armenia. Making a culinary show from seized lands is utter disrespect to one million Azerbaijani refugees & [people who were] forcefully displaced.”

Bourdain seems to have acknowledged the incident in his own understated way: On Tuesday, he posted an article from Armenpress, an Armenian news agency, about the situation to his Twitter page on October 24 without adding any additional commentary.

Recent episodes of Parts Unknown include trips to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Lagos, Nigeria; and the French Alps. We likely won’t see an episode set in Azerbaijan for the foreseeable future.