YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. The Senior Fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC Wayne Merry condemned official Baku's decision to declare 335 foreigners "persona non grata" for visiting the Nagorno Karabakh Republic "without the permission of the Azerbaijani authorities". As reports "Armenpress" in a conversation with "Turan" Wayne Merry stated that "this step first of all harms the Azerbaijani authorities."

Among other things Wayne Merry underscored: "It would be better to invite all those people to Azerbaijan and suggest them to get acquainted with the position of the other side as well. Notwithstanding, the current policy adopted by Baku will give opposite result and the people included in the "black list" will never know Azerbaijan's position, even if they want it very much. This stance adopted by Azerbaijan is a striking example of self-isolation and simple policy."

Wayne Merry had been working in the Department of State of the United States and official structures for 20 years. Wayne Merry is Senior Fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC. He is widely published and a frequent speaker on topics relating to Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the Balkans, European security and trans-Atlantic relations. In twenty-six years in the United States Foreign Service, he worked as a diplomat and political analyst specializing in Soviet and post-Soviet political issues, including six years at the American Embassy in Moscow. He paid a visit to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic last year and call on the international community to pay more attention on this conflict.

It's noteworthy that the list, which caused laughter of the whole progressive mankind, contains the names of such people, who have never visited the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, including Nicholas Wondra. "I have never been in Karabakh, notwithstanding as far as I have been included in the list, now I must visit Karabakh as an expert on Caucasus," Nicholas Wondra noted in a conversation with "Turan".

The aforesaid funny list of "persona non grata" contains 14 deputies of Russian Parliament, 5 reporters of German ZDF TV channel, president of Berlin academy, deputies of Iranian, Slovakian, Argentinean parliaments, famous Russian economist Victor Sheinis, Baroness Cox, President of military academy of Denmark, Russian political scientist Sergey Marcedonov, 14 deputies of French parliament, Italian singer Al Bano, 8 deputies of European Parliament, reporter of Washington Post in Moscow Will Englund, reporter of New York Times Anastasia Taylor Wint, Phillip Kirkorov's father – Bedros Kirkorov, famous opera singer Montserrat Caballe, a deputy of Canadian Parliament.  

The list also includes 6 American doctors, 7 British deputies, a Greek deputy, 3 deputies of Swiss Parliament, editor in chief of EU foreign policy magazine, former EU special representative in South Caucasus Peter Samnabi, 5 deputies of Uruguayan parliament, famous Swiss cosmonaut Claudi Nikolia, 6 Australian deputies,  a deputy of German Bundestag and other famous people.