Azeri rep in ICAO: Armenian plan to use Khojaly airport defies int'l law
Azerbaijan's ambassador to Canada and permanent representative in the International Civil Aviation Organization at an ICAO meeting on Wednesday drew the organization's attention to the Armenian intentions to commission an airport in Khojaly, a town where mass killings of Azerbaijanis were committed in 1992 during the war between the two South Caucasus neighbors.
Farid Shafiev noted that this provocation was contrary to international law and undermines security in the region.
Later, the ambassador said the airspace of the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia is closed to civil aviation, and the flying of any aircraft in this area puts passengers' lives at risk.
The ambassador criticized Armenia's irresponsible step and noted that Azerbaijan has the right to defend its airspace, in accordance with relevant articles of the Chicago convention.
The Khojaly airport and airspace over Nagorno-Karabakh -- an Azerbaijani region which has been under Armenian occupation along with seven surrounding districts since the 1990s war -- and other occupied territories are under the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan, he added.
Shafiev stressed the illegality of arranging any flights of other countries without a permission from Azerbaijan.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia leveled territorial claims against the neighboring country. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijani land since a fragile ceasefire was signed in 1994 following the brutal war.
Russia, France and the U.S., which co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, are brokering peace talks. The negotiations have been mostly fruitless so far.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on a withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.