Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Armenia's efforts to operate the airport in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region are attempts to violate international law, the Azerbaijani aviation body said following the reports on launching the airport in Khankandi -- the center of the self-proclaimed republic run by ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijani territories.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly expressed its position regarding Armenia's illegitimate step to commission the Khankandi airport.

"Our position has not changed. All actions must comply with international law," the Azerbaijani Civil Aviation Administration (ACAA) said.

Head of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh republic's civil aviation body, Valeri Adbashyan, told the Armenian press on Monday that it was launching the airport in Khankandi.

ACAA warned that if the reports on the airport commissioning and flights there are accurate, due reaction will follow from Azerbaijani ministries and government agencies.

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

The head of Civil Aviation Administration, Arif Mammadov, said earlier that Azerbaijan has banned the use of airspace of the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh territory, as the security of flights on this territory cannot be guaranteed. Moreover, since this airspace belongs to Azerbaijan, its use is illegal, he said.

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

Tomas de Waal, an expert on the South Caucasus region at the Carnegie Endowment think-tank, in his comments to Armenian media noted that the airport opening could heighten tension on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops -- where deadly clashes frequently occur.

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.