Azerbaijan may declare Karabakh 'no-fly zone'
By Sara Rajabova
Azerbaijan, a country which joined the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, may declare the area of Karabakh a 'no-fly zone', the Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a briefing Wednesday.
Elman Abdullayev was commenting on Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's statement regarding the opening of an airport in the town of Khojaly in Nagorno-Karabakh -- an Azerbaijani region under Armenian occupation.
According to Abdullayev, the countries that joined the Chicago Convention should respect the decisions made by other members. And as Nagorno-Karabakh is an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, flights over the country's territory without its permission are illegal and would serve to an escalation of the conflict and impede the process of negotiations on settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
"Azerbaijan is a civilized country...We do not violate international law. We do not carry out such flights in foreign territory. Azerbaijan has always adhered to international law, including the Chicago Convention," Abdullayev underscored.
"Armenia's actions are an affront to international law. Azerbaijan has sovereignty over its airspace," Abdullayev said.
Meanwhile, the Conservative MP, Energy and Climate Change Select Committee member and chair of the Azerbaijan All-Party Parliamentary Group Chris Pincher wrote in his article on HuffPost Politics that "should these latest tensions spiral into full-scale conflict, the consequences will be felt not just by the Caucasus region, but by the whole of Europe."
"Most experts suggest that the potential opening violates international law, including several provisions of the Chicago Convention - in particular, articles 1, 2, 5, 6, 10-16, 24 and 68," Pincher said. "Legally, Khojaly airport cannot operate, as unauthorized flights through Azerbaijani airspace are not permitted without that government's sanction."
This is unacceptable without the consent of the Azerbaijani government. Any violation may cause unpredictable consequences, Pincher said.
"But leaving all the legal implications aside, such a step could only undermine precisely what the international community is working hard for - slow and steady progress through peace talks and confidence building measures," Pincher said. "So it is not surprising that the international reaction to the proposed re-opening was unequivocal in its condemnation."
Also, recently, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in their statement expressed caution about the operation of flights to and from the Khojaly airport, saying they could not be used to support any claim of a change in the current status of Nagorno-Karabakh under international law.
There is, however, another reason why Azerbaijan opposes Armenia's plans, Pincher believes.
The airport in question is located at the site of the most notorious massacre in the 1988-1994 conflict when, on 26 February 1992, 613 civilians of the town of Khojaly were massacred by Armenian forces, Pincher added.
"No one disputes the right of civilians to free movement. But surely the right time to start talking about re-opening the airport is once the hostilities are over, and when the people who were expelled from their homes and who currently languish in displaced person camps are given the chance to return to their homes," Pincher said.
Commissioning the airport in Khojaly is an open violation of the Chicago Convention -- which was adopted on December 7, 1944, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry stated earlier.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the European Civil Aviation Conference (ICAC) also support the position of Azerbaijan on this issue.
International flights from the Khojaly airport, constructed in 1978, were prohibited after the occupation of territories by Armenia. The Khojaly airport, which has been registered in international organizations with the name UB13, is a facility with military purposes.
Document No.121 on airports of the ICAO cited the Khojaly airport as property of Azerbaijan.
Since a brutal war that concluded with the signing of a fragile cease-fire in 1994, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. Peace talks, brokered by Russia, France and the U.S., the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, have been mostly fruitless so far.