BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 7. About 1,000 Azerbaijani citizens from five countries have applied for evacuation, the statement of Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry says, Trend reports.
According to the statement, immediately after the closure of the airspace of the Gulf countries as a result of the ongoing military escalation in the Middle East, urgent measures were taken to evacuate citizens of Azerbaijan who remained in those countries.
The statement noted that a census of the citizens for evacuation was carried out based on the instructions given to diplomatic missions in the Gulf countries.
According to the preliminary census results, approximately 1,000 citizens of Azerbaijan in five countries applied for evacuation (490 from the UAE, 220 from Saudi Arabia, 200 from Qatar, 23 from Bahrain, and 26 from Kuwait).
As a result of negotiations between the Consulate General of our country in the UAE, and especially in Dubai, which is one of the main tourist destinations for citizens of Azerbaijan, and the FlyDubai airline, flights in the Dubai-Baku direction began to be carried out after the limited opening of the UAE airspace. A total of 755 Azerbaijani citizens returned to the country with flights carried out on March 3-5 in the mentioned direction. Currently, considering that the UAE airspace is closed again, necessary planning is underway to return the remaining Azerbaijani citizens to our country.
On March 4, 2026, a special flight of Azerbaijan Airlines from Saudi Arabia, the second main destination in need of evacuation, evacuated 193 Azerbaijani citizens (in addition, nine Azerbaijanis who are citizens of Georgia and five Azerbaijanis who are citizens of Russia), thus, totaling 207 people, from Jeddah to our country. Besides, our citizens registered in Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia were transported to Jeddah by appropriate buses organized by our diplomatic missions, and 203 people (including two Azerbaijanis who are citizens of Russia and one Azerbaijani who is a citizen of Georgia) were evacuated on March 7, 2026, and returned to our country by AZAL's Jeddah-Baku flight.
The Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan has adopted a decision and given instructions to relevant state agencies to ensure that our citizens in Iran can pass through our country by land without obstacles. So far, 300 citizens of Azerbaijan have arrived in Azerbaijan from Iran by land.
We are closely monitoring the situation in the region and are taking necessary measures to evacuate our citizens," the statement added.
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