Azernews.Az

BAKU – US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza has said Armenia and Azerbaijan need to ensure safety of flights before opening the airport in Khankandi, the center of the self-proclaimed republic run by ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan’s occupied Nagorno Karabakh region.

"I uphold the position of the US leadership, which believes that the sides should come together and discuss these issues before the airport is opened in Khankandi," Bryza told reporters on Tuesday.

The separatist Karabakh authorities have been rebuilding the airport near Khankandi, and plan to restart commercial flights to Yerevan in May.

The airport has been closed since the outbreak of the Karabakh war in the early 1990s, which saw ethnic Armenian forces backed by Yerevan occupy the region amid fighting that left an estimated 30,000 dead.

Azerbaijan has said Armenia has no right to operate the airport in Khankandi, built in its occupied territories, warning it could shoot down civilian planes flying to Nagorno Karabakh if the separatist authorities reopen it. Baku's state aviation agency said earlier that it has told the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) that the region's airspace was closed and any flights would be unauthorized.

"According to the law on aviation, it is even possible to physically destroy airplanes which are heading there," Arif Mammadov, the director of Azerbaijan's Civil Aviation Administration, told the press.

"We asked the ICAO to notify the opposing side in order to prevent incidents," he said.

It is necessary to obtain relevant documents and approval from the ICAO to operate the airport in Khankandi.

But the separatists in turn warned Azerbaijan not to disrupt the planned commercial flights, amid increasing tensions and exchanges of gunfire across the ceasefire line which has divided the two sides since the end of the war.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly said it could use force to win back Karabakh if peace talks do not yield tangible results, while Armenia has warned of large-scale retaliation if Baku launches military action.