THE END OF A DANGEROUS VOYAGE

As Azerbaijan patiently makes attempts to regain peacefully its lands occupied by Armenia, the Armenian side is using all means at its disposal to legalize the status quo in the conflict zone and get international recognition of Nagornyy Karabakh as an independent territorial entity. 

Attempts to attract foreign tourists to the occupied territories are one of the most important components of this policy. Nagornyy Karabakh is one of the most picturesque regions not only in Azerbaijan but throughout the Caucasus. This fact enables the Armenian side, sometimes not without success, to promote Nagornyy Karabakh as an independent entity at tourism exhibitions. It is clear that Armenia's booths provide foreign tourists with distorted information on where this region belongs to, historically and legally, and on its cultural legacy. As we know, the Armenian occupation of the region lasting for almost a quarter of a century, has been accompanied by total destruction of everything that belonged to [Caucasian] Albanian, Islamic and Azerbaijani cultures; replacing Azeri names of places, rivers and monuments of religion and culture with Armenian ones. 

Materials to this effect sometimes find their way onto the pages of leading foreign media. Quite recently, for example, The Guardian included Nagornyy Karabakh on its list of "the best new adventures for 2015". It is the tense situation in the region, the newspaper admits, that makes visiting the occupied lands an adventure. Nonetheless, the British newspaper advises that potential tourists should travel to the region offering "mountain monasteries, archaeological sites, ancient cave settlements and areas of outstanding natural beauty". 

Similar stuff was published a month ago by another newspaper of world renown - The New York Times. Offering tourists to admire beautiful sights of Nagornyy Karabakh, the author of the article "A Warm Welcome in the Caucasus Mountains" quite similarly withholds the fact that the land belongs to another people and is soaked in their blood. The article does not say a word about the fact that, by making an illegal journey to the occupied territories, US citizens will break Azerbaijani laws and international rules, including recommendations of the US Department of State. Of course, the material does not say that such an unauthorized trip will lead to restrictions on future trips to Azerbaijan. 

Of course, the Azerbaijani side came up with a response in every such case. However, the lack of a single international mechanism to prevent this kind of negative phenomena would restrict efforts by the staff of diplomatic missions and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. As a rule, the organizers of exhibitions allotting space for promoting occupied Karabakh would shrug their shoulders saying that it was the work of private companies and the state could not interfere in their activity. As regards the media, the Azerbaijani side was given, at the best, the right to publish its response but a reader who has already risen to the beautiful pictures from the explosive region might never see it. 

However, quite recently, the executive council of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has approved a resolution proposed by Azerbaijan on "Prevention of Promotion of Conflict Zones as Tourism Destinations and Using Tourism for Illegal Purposes". A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the UNWTO Executive Council in the Croatian town of Rovinj on 28-29 May 2015. 

The draft resolution had been presented by the Azerbaijani side back at the 99th meeting of the organization in Uzbekistan's Samarkand in October last year, Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Qarayev, who took part in the council meeting, told journalists. 

Despite strong protests from the Armenian side, Azerbaijan's initiative was supported. A large role in approving this decision was played by placing the problem in a wider context, including all conflict zones, not only Nagornyy Karabakh. This also enabled Azerbaijan to enlist the support of countries faced with similar problems. 

According to the resolution, all tourism activity must be carried out in compliance with the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, as well as the ethic principles of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council. The approval of this document has provided Baku with a very important international lever for preventing the Armenian promotion of the occupied lands of Azerbaijan at international tourism exhibitions and other events. 

"This decision can be viewed as extremely important as its approval established for the first time an implementing mechanism for international rules in tourism activity," the minister said.  

The gist of the decision is that those promoting tourism in one conflict zone or another will be held responsible. Note that this applies not only to government structures but also to private ones for which the host state of the exhibition did not want to be responsible and which were free to allot space in their booths to odious entities like the NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh republic]. 

"If a tourist, in violation of these rules, makes a trip tomorrow, for example, to Nagornyy Karabakh and something happens to them, who will be held responsible for that? Thus the said document makes up the legal basis to provide security for tourism services," Qarayev said. 

Speaking once again about the importance of the decision taken, it should be said that a large majority of international travel exhibitions are held under the auspices of the UNWTO. So, while formerly Azerbaijan had to combat single-handedly against attempts to present the occupied territories as tourism zones, now this issue will be attended to by the World Tourism Organization. 

Expressing its attitude to the resolution motioned by Azerbaijan, the UNWTO recognizes the importance of providing health care, safety and security in tourism, especially in view of the growing death toll among tourists. The organization admits that tourists make those trips to zones of armed conflicts because of their ignorance, succumbing to enticing adverts from tour operators who, in search of profits, totally ignore major safety criteria and pass over in silence hazards to life awaiting tourists. The growing numbers of deaths and cases of abuse call for extra efforts to mobilize member states and all those engaged in tourism in order to settle emergent problems and better coordinate their efforts in this area. 

In addition, the UNWTO shares the view that it is unacceptable to politicize tourism and use international travel fairs and other events for purposes running counter to major goals of tourism as laid down in the UNWTO Charter and principles of Global Code of Ethics for Tourism. 

Thus the approval by the UNWTO General Assembly of the draft resolution will give a new impetus to efforts to develop practical mechanisms to provide safety and security in the sphere of tourism and will prevent the use of tourism for illegal purposes thereby contributing to the development of tourism as means to strengthen international peace and security. 

So the WTO has admitted that promotion of hotbeds of separatism is becoming a common headache. Time will tell how effective the new mechanism is. Essentially, Armenia has managed so far to ignore decisions of another and the most authoritative UN unit - its Security Council. It is important however that Azerbaijan has succeeded in making it an international offence for other, more responsible members of the international community to encourage separatism.