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Rena Murshud

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After the Armenian occupation, the large-scale construction projects carried out by Azerbaijan in the Garabagh economic region and East Zangazur started to worry Yerevan a lot. It's no secret that Pashinyan expressed his concern about the ongoing reconstruction works and resettlement of the population in the territories in an interview with the Euronews TV channel a few weeks ago. Even behind this, some Armenian bloggers seriously criticized Pashinyan with their rational approach, expressed opinions in favour of Azerbaijan, and admitted that the Azerbaijan's leadership is truly successful.

Apparently, the Pashinyan administration, which wants to draw conclusions from criticism, wanted to sign a randomly chosen project. However, as always, the Armenian leadership grossly violated the rules and laws. We are talking, of course, about the airport in Gafan, which is located near the Azerbaijan-Armenia border, and has been unused for years. In fact, the mentioned airport operated in a limited form during the Soviet rule. However, after the collapse of the regime, when the borders were separated, the airport was unusable due to certain insecurity. It should be noted that the Gafan airport is only a few tens of meters away from the border with Azerbaijan. It is even possible to see the territory of the airport with a plain view from the border. Considering that the peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia has not yet been signed, it is inevitable that planes flying from the airport will violate the airspace of Azerbaijan. For this reason, putting the facility into operation is not accepted by Azerbaijan according to the norms of international law.

Political analyst Elkhan Shikhaliyev, who made a comment to Azernews about the issue, also confirmed these views and noted that it is absurd for the Armenian leadership to agree to such activities that may violate the border rules.

"I consider this step of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who recently visited the Gafan airport to be put into operation again, an ill-considered decision. First of all, the Gafan airport is located at the point of contact with Azerbaijan, which Armenia considers an enemy, and I must note that a peace treaty has not been signed between the two countries. For this reason, Pashinyan's spending of nearly 2 million for the restoration and reuse of Gafan airport, which was closed after the 1990s, is just a waste of money. Also, the opening of the airport at such a moment can be considered as another plan for provocations."

Elkhan Shikhaliyev linked Armenia's taking such a step with the failure it faced at the UN.

"During the discussion of Azerbaijan's Garabagh issues at the meeting of the UN Security Council, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of firing at the Gafan airport as an aggressive opponent. However, the UN showed Armenia its rightful place. Armenia was especially disappointed by the fact that the organization did not sign any serious documents against Azerbaijan," the military expert noted.

The pundit also considered it inadequate for Armenia to start operating the airport close to the territory of Azerbaijan without signing a peace treaty with official Baku.

"We must take into account that during the flights, Armenia will in any case violate the airspace of Azerbaijan. And Azerbaijan will certainly not turn a blind eye to it," Shikhaliyev said.

The political analyst added that before opening the airport, Pashinyan should discuss and resolve the issues of delimitation and demarcation, opening of communications, border recognition at the table with the Azerbaijani leadership.

According to him, Armenia's desire is actually to deliberately direct the opinions of international powers to the Zangazur corridor. "Pashinyan is trying to ensure some kind of security by turning the area (corridor) that will be used as a communication route in the future into a strategic space," the expert emphasized.

Talking about the strategic importance of the airport, the political expert also touched on the Iranian factor.

"We know that at the same time, Armenia is acting together with Iran on the non-opening of the Zangazur Corridor. Therefore, at the next stage, the escalation will manifest itself in the direction of the Gorus-Gafan-Zangazur corridor of Armenia, in the direction of Mehri Agrar Ordubad, especially in the route of the road communication intersection with Iran. One of the cunning intentions of Armenia is to drag Azerbaijan into new provocations. It wants to make these efforts through communication, future conflicts at Gafan airport, and the possibility of firing against any planes or the airport. In a word, just as Armenia wants to build a metallurgical plant near Sadarak, it also wants to provoke Azerbaijan by launching the airport located a few meters away from the border.

In addition, expert Elkhan Shikhaliyev, speaking about the secret plans of Iran, which is interested in the operation of the airport, again linked the issue with the Zangazur corridor. He noted that in the future, if the Zangezur corridor is not convenient for Armenia and Iran, he is thinking of using the airport of Iran and Armenia as an alternative option.

"Nevertheless, both Armenia and Iran clearly do not understand that neither the use of the airport nor the construction of gold mines can be possible if they violate the norms of international law. Because this is considered a red line for Azerbaijan," the expert added.

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Rena Murshud is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @RenaTagiyeva

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