According to the Azerbaijani embassy in Madrid, 80-year-old Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé is now an official enemy of the state.
Why, you ask, is an elder stateswoman of bel canto considered persona non grata back in Baku? Well, Caballé dared to visit Nagorno-Karabakh--still an "occupied territory"--without getting the proper permissions.
Internationally recognized as belonging to Azerbaijan, the country has ceased to exercise any real autonomy over the area's mostly mountains and forests since 1991. Furthermore, since the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994, representatives of both Azerbaijan and Armenia have been in peace negotiations concerning the territory's status, as mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.
In more recent years, however, Azerbaijan has routinely blacklisted foreign officials and their guests who visit Nagorno-Karabakh via Armenia.
Earlier this week, Caballé spent two days in Nagorno-Karabakh, meeting with President Bako Sahakyan and spiritual leader Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan. She also visited two Armenian churches, including the medieval Gandzasar monastery.
Soon after, Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a note of protest claiming that Azerbaijani authorities had alerted Caballe's managers about the possible consequences of her visits--adding that the world-famous singer will no longer be eligible for Azerbaijan's visas.
As it stands, Montserrat Caballé is still on the books to concertize Armenia's Yerevan Opera Theater on Sunday, June 9.
Here's hoping, then, the Barcelona diva makes even half the statement that Berlin's Bargeld does here.
