Azerbaijan has barred 31 Turkish citizens from entering the country over social media remarks that authorities allege threatened Azerbaijani national security and advocated the forcible overthrow of the Baku government.
The move marks a further escalation in a dispute over a headscarf ban between the two countries, which share close ethnic, religious, cultural and historical ties.
Azerbaijan’s decision last month to ban headscarves in primary and high schools sparked protests in Turkey, turning the issue into a diplomatic crisis.
The Azerbaijani interior ministry said those barred from entering the country had also used violent rhetoric rooted in “religious radicalism”.
The list includes prominent political figures, journalists and academics, among them Fatih Erbakan, chairman of the ultraconservative New Welfare Party, who took aim at Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev.