Azerbaijan Border Closed

[Tiffany]

Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news, but for those of us in or about to head towards Central Asia-read on.

Just heard from Kennichi- the border is currently closed into Azerbaijan (from Georgia) - he got turned back this morning and so did several others.
There is a now a queue of travellers waiting to get into the Azerbaijan Embassy at Tbilisi in the morning when it opens. Luckily Tibs is quite close to the border.

There is a lot of confusion as to why they have been turned away - some have the "old" style visas issued more than five weeks ago, but at least one of those turned away has the "new" style visa.
I have met and emailed people who crossed over no problem in the last week, so this is fresh problems- hopefully it is not more fall out from swine flu.

If anyone hears anything else, please let us know.

[CornishDaddy]

If anyone has any news about the Iran border into Azerbaijan, we'd liketo know too. (sorry if this hijacts the thread??).

Wer are in the process of applying for a visa, David said the LOI would take one week, so far we have waited 3 and no news .....

Getting scarey after Turkemn. Plan c is to go straight to Pakistan, and Plan D is to ship to South America!!!!!!

Good luck to all you guys in Georgia. Maybe it will all work out and we will have a big party in Baku???

[Tiffany]

Kennichi (Leon) and others have been at the Azerbaijan Embassy in Tbilisi for several hours this morning.
The result is that everyone's visas are OK- apparently it was just some mis-informed over-zealous border guards on the Georgian side who looked at their visas and refused them to go through.

There may have been some confusion because a month ago Azerbaijan changed its visa application system - regardless, the advice is to go and try it as all visas are valid regardless of whether they were acquired under the old system or the new one.

they have now headed back to the border to try again and to be forceful about it - not easy when the other guy has your passport in his hand and a gun in the other.

[rintzer]

what a shame, i should have read this earlier. could have saved me a huge detour.