The women had been pressing the Iranian government for months to release their children, and then later they asked for visas to visit them.
Middle Eastern diplomats said the number of people from Arab countries asking for visas has dropped by half over the past year, an outgrowth of the lengthy application process and a fear of running into anti-Arab sentiment here.
As Nazis threatened to invade Lithuania, thousands of Jews surrounded the Japanese consulate and asked for visas to escape.
"A hurricane that hits Cuba doesn't ask for a visa before entering the United States," he said.
"It's always easy to blame the imperialists," he reflected ruefully, "but maybe we didn't ask for the visa in time".
And the process is not easy; we have to ask for a visa; we then, sometimes, have to wait for months and months until we have an answer.
"It's always easy to blame the imperialists, but maybe we didn't ask for the visa in time," the 81-year-old sighs.
If you plan to visit Azerbaijan in the future, ask for the visa to be put on a separate piece of paper that can be removed from your passport.
Kozak went to the Australian embassy to ask for a visa for Bachelet and her mother, and in May 1975 accompanied them to the airport for their flight into exile.
I didn't ask for a visa or particular information about Estonia, but I'm sure that I could have.
