Azernews.Az

US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar has commented on the decision of Armenians to commission the airport in Khankandi, the center of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh republic run by ethnic Armenians in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

The ambassador warned that consequences of this decision will not be desirable, ANS TV news channle reports.

"One thing I can say for sure is that if this airport is commissioned, it will not help the peace process. The US stance is that both sides should address this issue within international legal norms.

"I repeat that as the [mediating OSCE] Minsk Group and others stated, any flight from this airport will negatively affect the peace process."

Head of the self-proclaimed republic's civil aviation body, Valeri Adbashyan, announced launching the airport in Khankandi in the Armenian press on October 1.

The airport in Khankandi, which was built in 1974, has been inoperational since the early 1990s since war broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Both Armenia's capital Yerevan, which has not recognized the "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic", and the self-proclaimed entity itself had repeatedly raised the issue of reopening the airport in recent years.

Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory since the brutal war, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its withdrawal from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly condemned Armenia's illegitimate step to commission the Khankandi airport.