Azerbaijani citizens issued defective passports, creating problems abroad

The citizens of Azerbaijan, who obtained legal passports, were taken as violators with fake documents, as they different from the standard set. The white luminescence is seen at the 3-4th pages, where passport date is fixed in place of yellow one. Moreover, the eight-angled stars, which must be present at the said pages, are not seen.

A source from Azerbaijan's Interior Ministry told Eacho that the facts really occurred in the beginning of this year. Moreover, another production defect was made by producing firm last year.

Javid Sharifov, deputy chief of the head department of passport registration and migration service, told Echo, that the defected passports are still issued. There is a possibility that they will be issued until biometric ones are not put in circulation.

"The defect, you are speaking about, was revealed in the foreign passports in early 2008. However, these are not fake documents, they are completely legal. Yes, our citizens had these problems, but only in the check points of Siberia, in Russia, while no such facts have ever been registered in another places abroad. In this connection, our department has appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Finances, informing them of the shortcomings. as the Ministry of Finance is the foreign passports customer. We have already informed Siberian control check points about the defect in our passports via the Russian embassy to Azerbaijan, so, I think, our citizens will not have problems with their legal documents", Sharifov said.

He said the producing firm made shortcomings in the foreign passports of Azerbaijan last year as well, but they were of different nature.

Ali Melikov, chief of department of the Center of Legal Expertise, said this data are production defect, which differs passport from the standards set. "They can be used while achieving mutual agreement between the interested departments", the expert said.