Azerbaijan, Baku / Тrend corr S. Agayeva / Azerbaijan will demands explanations from the International Tourist Organization, as British Tour Operator provides tours to the occupied Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Sunvil Discovery ltd, a tour operator in London, offers to British tourists a 10-day tourist program to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,though British authorities recommend refusing from visiting Nagorno-Karabakh due to unsettled conflict and skirmishes.
"The Azerbaijani Culture and Tourism Ministry will apply to the International Tourist Organization (ITO) and will urge to settle the issue through stopping tours to the occupied Azerbaijani territory," the head of the Central Tourism Department at the Ministry Aydin Ismiyev said on 7 December.
Organization of tours to the occupied Azerbaijani territory contradicts with the recommendations of the ITO and the international law. Leaning on that, the Ministry intends to urge ITO to make serious steps with respect to the tour operator.
"So far we have not had any information about Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," the head of the PR Department of the Sunvil Discovery ltd Sara Belcher said to Trend. She promised to provide the details of the tours to Nagorno-Karabakh in near future.Sunvil Discovery, a member of the British Association of Tour Agencies, has been functioning as a tour operator since 1970. The British Association of Tour Agencies said that the company should inform its clients of where they are going to, but the Association cannot make the company to annihilate the program."We cannot interfere with that. That is an individual choice of the tour operator and his clients," the Association said.The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.
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