AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
Aug 18 2009

Armenia arranging illegal tours

18-08-2009 23:56:18

A group of 61 tourists on Monday headed from Armenia to Upper
Garabagh, an Azerbaijani region under Armenian occupation, reports
say.
Novosti Armenii news agency quoted Ruben Grigorian of the Rumea travel
agency as saying that the tour had been organized as part of "a pilot
program on the development of tourism in Garabagh", prepared by the
separatist regime, which offered the Armenian authorities to arrange
recreation of their citizens there.
According to Grigorian, though the group includes only citizens of
Armenia, trips to the region by foreign nationals are planned as
well. Such orders have already been placed by Swedish and Canadian
nationals, he added.
Upper Garabagh has been occupied by Armenia since a 1994 cease-fire
ended hostilities that killed an estimated 30,000 people and ousted
about a million Azerbaijanis out of their homes. Years of peace talks
have brought little tangible result.
Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian criticized local
companies seeking to attract tourists from his country to Turkey,
calling on them "not to forget about Armenia and Garabagh" for the
sake of making more profit.