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Booking.com resumes illegal hotel reservations in occupied Azerbaijani lands

Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict Materials 17 November 2017 13:55 (UTC +04:00)
Booking.com, the Netherlands-based travel fare aggregator website, has resumed illegal hotel reservations in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.
Booking.com resumes illegal hotel reservations in occupied Azerbaijani lands

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.17

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

Booking.com, the Netherlands-based travel fare aggregator website, has resumed illegal hotel reservations in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories, spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend Nov.17.

He noted that previously after a serious protest from Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Booking.com stopped making illegal hotel reservations in the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia.

“As a result of an investigation, it was revealed that Booking.com has renewed the illegal hotel reservations in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands. Promotion of Azerbaijan’s occupied lands as a tourism destination by Booking.com and making hotel reservations there absolutely contradicts the principles of international law, the Charter of the World Tourism Organization, the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, as well as relevant decisions and recommendations of the World Tourism Organization’s Executive Board,” said Hajiyev.

He pointed out that promotion of the occupied territories - where more than a million Azerbaijanis were subject to bloody ethnic cleansing - as a tourism destination and making hotel reservations there is inconsistent with any moral framework as well.

Azerbaijan’s occupied territories are closed for legal international money transfers, whereas hotels are booked in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands via online payments on Booking.com, which takes profit from this, said Hajiyev, adding this is considered as illegal international money transfer and money laundering.

“Regretfully, with such activities detrimental to the corporate business ethics, the company creates an unserious impression about itself and undermines its reputation. Coordinated relevant measures are underway by Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Azerbaijan’s embassy in the Netherlands has also received instructions,” he added.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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