State visit of Angela Merkel to Azerbaijan (2018)
The state visit of Angela Merkel in Azerbaijan took on August 25, 2018 just one day.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled to Azerbaijan for a one-day state visit on August 25, 2018 . Her first state visit to the country rounded off a three-day trip abroad through the South Caucasus . Previous stations were Georgia and Armenia .
Tensions
Five days before the planned visit, the Azerbaijani government announced that the Thuringian member of the Bundestag Albert Weiler (CDU) would not receive an entry permit. Like other MPs, Weiler should accompany Merkel on her trip. The background to this are two visits by Weiler in 2014 and early 2016 to the Nagorno-Karabakh region , the area of which is disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan, without a permit or notification to Azerbaijan. A spokesman for the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry said that Weiler was therefore on a list of undesirable people. Weiler emphasized the purely informative character of his travels.
Arbitration talks between the Federal Foreign Office and the Azerbaijani ambassador in Berlin failed on the same day. In a conversation the following morning, Merkel and Weiler agreed that they would keep the visit. Merkel promised that she would clearly criticize President İlham Əliyev about the entry refusal. Instead of Weiler, the deputy chairman of the Union parliamentary group Johann Wadephul will accompany Merkel.
