14:43 - 10.04.2018

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April 10, Fineko/abc.az. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev expressed his strong dissatisfaction over the mercenary activities of airport employees.

At Cabinet’s meeting he stated that at times law enforcement officials unreasonably interfere with work of hotels and cause inconvenience to guests, allegedly providing thereby some rules.

"Greed, intention to tear off money, and fill pockets are behind that. The end should be put to that. I’ve repeatedly said about this for many times and I say about it again: any country with tourism potential tries to attract tourists and create conditions for them. We've been waiting for someone to knock on our door until recently. Citizens came to our embassy for a visa, and there they were distressed and various unreasonable demands were put forward before them. We eliminated that kind of visa. After that, our country introduced a system of getting visa at airports. Citizens of more than 90 countries receive visas at our airports. One of my foreign colleagues told me: you eliminated the old visa system, but now the citizens coming from our country are required a photo at airports during visa procedure. I was terrified. What photo?! Why a person travelling abroad should carry his photo with himself?! Some our airport visa officials allegedly say to visa getting visitors that if they have no photos, then they should pay and pass queue. How those airport officials can make such a mess! We’ve punished those officials, and the photo question has been resolved. After that, I hear again that at airports foreign guests are required money in order to jump the queue. I can't find words - what kind of meanness, what a disgrace. Very strict measures have been taken, and once again I want to say: if there are violations in this or any other sphere, if arbitrariness related to bribery continues, very tough measures will be taken, and all responsible persons will be punished, regardless of their past merits," the president added.