Azernews.Az

Commissioning of the new airport in Khankandi without mutual agreement of the conflict parties will harm the negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk said on Wednesday.

"The land that the Khankendi airport is located on is Azerbaijan's sovereign territory," he told media. "Therefore, in this respect, much depends on Azerbaijan's position."

Khankandi is the center of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh republic run by ethnic Armenians in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. Head of the self-proclaimed republic's civil aviation body, Valeri Adbashyan, announced launching the airport in Khankandi in the Armenian press on Oct.1.

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

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.

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

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.