What did chef Anthony Bourdain do to get banned from Azerbaijan?

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain has travelled the world with his cooking show, Parts Unknown.

But top officials in Azerbaijan, an oil-rich country nestled between Russia and Iran, want him to know this: he just became a persona non grata.

His crime? Travelling to Nagorno-Karabakh, an extremely contentious pocket of land that is located, technically, in Azerbaijan. But right now, it’s controlled by Armenia. The 4,400 sq km enclave ihas been a sore spot between the two countries since 1988, when the region’s legislature voted to join Armenia. It did so because many of the region’s residents are ethnic Armenians.

Azerbaijan rejected the secession attempt. But after the Soviet Union fell, the region’s legislature declared independence outright. In 1992, a full-scale war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Armenia quickly gained the upper hand, seizing control of Nagorno and pushing even farther into Azerbaijan.

By 1993, Armenia controlled nearly a fifth of Azerbaijan. Hundreds of thousands of Azeris were displaced.