Azerbaijan has declared 14 Iranian citizens persona non grata, accusing them of making statements against the country’s sovereignty, security and constitutional order. The entry ban means none of them will be allowed into Azerbaijani territory.
Azerbaijani authorities have imposed an entry ban on 14 Iranian citizens, placing them on a register of persona non grata individuals. According to the information released, the move follows statements by these individuals targeting Azerbaijan’s sovereignty, national security and constitutional order.
The decision, officials said, came in response to a recent escalation in critical remarks, insulting language and calls for unlawful action from some Iranian public figures and media representatives directed at the Azerbaijani state, its citizens and its leadership.
Those placed on the list include current and former members of Iran’s parliament, clerics, political commentators, academics and journalists. Some of them are accused of questioning Azerbaijan’s independence, harshly criticizing its system of governance and its approach to religion-state relations, promoting religious radicalism, and even calling for the forcible overthrow of the country’s leadership.
Who is on the entry-ban list
Those affected by the entry ban include Ehsan Movahhediyan, a lecturer at Tehran’s Allameh Tabataba’i University and political analyst; Ahmad Farshbafian, former head of the Centre for Caucasus and Anatolian Studies at the University of Tabriz; and Kamran Ghazanfari, a member of Iran’s parliament, the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
The list also names former lawmaker and political commentator Alireza Beighi; sitting members of parliament Abolfazl Zohravand, Abbas Mogtedayi Khorasgani and Alireza Salimi; Huseyn Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Kayhan; and Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and Consultative Council.
It further includes Ayatollah Muhammad Javad Fazil Lankarani, a member of the Society of Authors and Teachers of the Qom Seminary and head of the Imam-e-Athar Fiqh Centre in Qom; Abdul Hossein Khosrov Panah, secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution; Hujjat-ul-Islam Gholamreza Kawashi, head of public relations at the office of the Friday prayer imam of Tabriz and the office of the Iranian Supreme Leader’s representative in East Azerbaijan Province; professor and political analyst Dariush Safranjejad; and actor and television presenter Ahmadreza Mousavi.
Authorities said all 14 individuals named will now be barred from entering Azerbaijani territory.
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