Azernews.Az

Armenia has said it was launching the airport in Khankandi -- the center of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh republic run by ethnic Armenians in occupied Azerbaijani territories, NEWS.am website reported on Monday.

Previously, reports circulated that it is planned to start carrying out flights between the Armenian capital Yerevan and Khankandi soon.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in a recent statement pledged to be the first passenger on a flight to Khankandi.

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said recently commissioning of the airport in Khankandi would be an open violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation -- which was signed in Chicago on December 7, 1944. Therefore, Baku will "intensify work in the legal realm" to enforce the convention, Azimov told Trend news agency.

Azerbaijan has banned use of the airspace of the Armenia-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region, as no one can guarantee flight safety there, head of the Azerbaijani Civil Aviation Administration, Arif Mammadov, told the Yeni Azerbaijan party's website earlier.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the European Civil Aviation Conference (ICAC) support Baku's stance on the issue.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994. Armenian armed forces have since occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, defying international calls and UN resolutions.

Peace talks, brokered by the United States, Russia and France through the OSCE Minsk Group, have been largely fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on a pullout from Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven surrounding regions.