YEREVAN, AUGUST 31, ARMENPRESS. Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Balayan, at “Armenpress” request commented on the issue connected with the situation of the Armenia national team and Borussia Dortmund midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

“The ridiculous attitude of Azerbaijani side is not something new to us, as any person with an Armenian name is prohibited to enter Azerbaijan. The latter completely reflects the country’s policy guidelines of Armenophobia propaganda. It is clear that visiting Artsakh has nothing to do with it.

The situation has become so ridiculous that last year at Baku Airport a citizen of Turkey was prohibited to enter Azerbaijan because his name ended with “yan”.”, emphasized Tigran Balayan.

Earlier Borussia Dortmund expressed hopes that Henrikh Mkhitaryan would not encounter any problems during his visit to Azerbaijan to play against “Qäbälä” within the framework of Europa League. The press secretary of the Dortmund club, Sascha Fligge, mentioned about this. “At this moment Henrikh is a very important player for us and played a wonderful football during the last weeks so we hope that Mkhitaryan will have no problems playing in the EL”, Fligge said.

At the same time, Azerisport wrote that Mkhitaryan could be arrested in Azerbaijan if he arrived in Baku to play against “Qäbälä” in the group stage of Europa League. “His visit to Nagorno Karabakh can be the reason for it”, wrote the Azerbaijani website.

A number of politicians, public and cultural figures who visited Artsakh have appeared in the black list of Azerbaijan.

“Qäbälä”-“Borussia” stage group match is scheduled on October 22.