{"id":1753,"date":"2015-10-07T18:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T18:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1753"},"modified":"2015-10-08T11:43:21","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T11:43:21","slug":"italian-journalist-getting-into-azerbaijans-black-list-honor-for-people-refusing-to-kiss-tyrant-aliyevs-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1753","title":{"rendered":"Italian journalist: Getting into Azerbaijan\u2019s \u201cblack list\u201d honor for people refusing to \u201ckiss tyrant Aliyev\u2019s feet\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

panorama.am<\/em><\/p>\n

One does not have to try hard to get into Azerbaijan\u2019s \u201cblack list.\u201d You just need to tell the truth. This is what Milena Gabanelli, an Italian journalist, did covering the Karabakh war at the early 90\u2019s. A few years ago, another Italian journalist, Anna Mazzone, also wrote a story on Artsakh where the war is not a remote memory but a conflict that may burst out any moment, the journalist herself writes for Formiche.net, recounting how she got into the \u201cblack list\u201d of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

\"Anna<\/a>
Anna Mazzone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the beginning of her article<\/a>, Mazzone states that the government of Azerbaijan has increased repressions against oppositionists deteriorating its international image, which was negative to start with. Over the recent years, dozens of human rights defenders, political and civil figures, journalists and bloggers have been arrested or jailed on politically motivated reasons. Many others left the country. NGO and their leaders\u2019 bank accounts have been frozen. In some cases, those organizations were closed down. New laws made it practically impossible for the independent groups to be financed from abroad. According to the journalist, the international community criticizes Azerbaijani government\u2019s \u201ciron fist\u201d from the one hand, and fails to promote an improvement of the situation in the country, from the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never been in Azerbaijan\u2019s \u2018black list,\u2019 but never say never. It happened and it makes me happy \u2013 being a \u2018persona non grata\u2019 for a dictator is always worth praising. Really, I did not do much to be given the honor \u2013 I just did my work,\u201d Mazzone writes.<\/p>\n

For many years, the journalist told her readers about Armenia and Azerbaijan, parts of the world that seem to be so remote, yet they are closer that one could imagine. Asking the Melendugno (Italy) residents would be enough to be convinced in that. These are the people, who protested against the realization of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is to supply Azerbaijani gas to the European countries.<\/p>\n

Mazzone notes that there are also other Italians banned from entering Azerbaijan<\/a>. She acknowledges being in a good company in the \u201cblack list.\u201d The list starts with the name of Antonia Arslan, a well-known Italian writer of Armenian descent, who traveled the whole peninsula during the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide committed by the Young Turks to spread the word about what happened in Turkey between 1915 and 1918.<\/p>\n

The names of other journalists and TV reporters, who \u201care probably guilty of not kissing the tyrant Ilham Aliyev\u2019s feet\u201d are also in the \u201cblack list.\u201d Names of sculptors, architects, actors and actresses are in their company, as well.<\/p>\n

Mazzone further reminds that French journalists for the TV channel France 2 recently called the president Ilham Aliyev a \u201cdictator\u201d and Azerbaijan one of the cruelest dictatorships in the world. A dictator president cannot use against the foreign journalists the same methods he uses against the local journalists. Mazzone, citizen of a free and democratic country, does not understand a ban on entry into another country. Nonetheless, she hopes that democracy will be established in Azerbaijan. \u201cDo not worry Aliyev. This is what happens to the \u2018best dictators\u2019 sooner or later,\u201d the journalist sums up.<\/p>\n

Back in 2013, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan published a list of people who had become persona non grata in Azerbaijan for visiting Nagorno Karabakh Republic, and thus are barred from entry to the country. According to media reports, the number of the names included in the list is above 300, which, however, does not stop the world celebrities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

panorama.am One does not have to try hard to get into Azerbaijan\u2019s \u201cblack list.\u201d You just need to tell the truth. This is what Milena [more >>>]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conflicts","category-azerbaijan","category-azerbaijan-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1755,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions\/1755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}