On 8 August, the members of the Bulgarian parliament Valeri Simeonov and Yordan Apostolov visited the de facto President of Nagorno-Karabakh Bako Sahakyan in order to discuss the developing inter-parliamentary dialogue and humanitarian ties between the internationally non recognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Bulgaria. Sahakyan noted that the visits of Bulgarian parliamentarians to Nagorno-Karabakh are conducted on a regular basis, and expressed the hope that bilateral cooperation will further expand and deepen.

The visit of the Bulgarian parliamentarians prompted a quick reaction by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, giving them the status of a persona non-grata to Azerbaijan. “The illegal visit of MP Simeonov, notorious for his pro-Armenian position, is the third in a row. As a result of an unauthorized visit in 2016, he was included in the list of foreign citizens who illegally visited the occupied Azerbaijani territories. Parliamentary member Apostolov will also be put on the list of foreign citizens who illegally visited the occupied Azerbaijani territories,” read the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has blacklisted hundreds of foreign nationals so far, including politicians, journalists, businessmen, artists and others, who visited Nagorno-Karabakh in recent years without a visa or an official warrant from Baku, thus banning them from entering Azerbaijan.

Simeonov and Apostolov are members of the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria (NFSB), a eurosceptic right-wing political party in Bulgaria. The NFSB belongs to the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group in the EU parliament, which is led by the UK Independence Party and the Italian Lega Nord, and which opposes further European integration efforts and pushes for the adoption of anti-immigration laws in the EU. 

Previously, in May, the parliamentary members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Steffen Kotre and Stefan Keuter, visited Nagorno-Karabakh where they met with Karabakh’s former de facto Prime Minister Rayik Harutiunyan and with members of the local de facto parliament. Both AfD deputies were also declared “personae non gratae” in Azerbaijan.