Booking.com, registered in the Netherlands, has resumed illegal activities by started booking hotels in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Hikmat Hajiyev.

Axar.az informs that spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told on Nov. 17.

He recalled that Booking.com earlier stopped booking hotels in occupied Azerbaijani territories after receiving a letter of protest from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Hajiyev stressed that such activity of Booking.com contradicts the norms and principles of international law, the Charter of the World Tourism Organization, the Globe Code of Ethics for Tourism, and the relevant decisions and recommendations of the WTO Executive Council.

“Promoting as a tourist attraction the occupied territories where over a million Azerbaijanis were subjected to bloody ethnic cleansing, and offering hotel reservations there do not fit any ethical frameworks,” he added.

The spokesman said that though the occupied Azerbaijani territories are closed for legitimate international money transfers, online payments are made through Booking.com, and, thus, the reservation of hotels in the occupied territories and the earnings of Booking.com from them are meant as illegal payment transactions and money laundering.

He noted that such activity of Booking.com runs contrary to business ethics and is a factor that negatively affects the prestige of the company.

Hajiyev said that the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism are taking appropriate measures in this regard. “The Azerbaijani Embassy in the Netherlands has also been given appropriate instructions,” he added.