Armenian president to promote launching Khojaly airport on Moscow visit: analysts
By Sara Rajabova
Political experts say Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will promote during his upcoming visit to Russia the opening of the Khojaly airport in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region under Armenian occupation.
It is not a surprise that without waiting for his re-inauguration, Sargsyan will leave for Moscow on March 12 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani MP and political analyst Rasim Musabayov said on Thursday.
"Moscow has always attached foreign policy related legitimacy to the Armenian regime," Musabayov told Trend news agency. "After taking office, every Armenian president, prime minister and foreign minister chose Russia as the first country to visit in order to demonstrate their loyalty and reaffirm amongst their own people that Moscow's leadership recognizes and receives them."
The analyst added that there is no doubt that Sargsyan will strongly promote the launch of flights to the Khojaly airport during his forthcoming discussions with President Putin.
"After all, he publicly promised that after winning the elections, he will personally fly on the first flight," he said. "However, awareness of the seriousness of Baku's warnings that illegal flights over our territory will be prevented will cause delays and calls for Moscow's support."
"Foreign minister" of the self-proclaimed "Nagorno Karabakh Republic" Karen Mirzoyan said recently that the airport in Khojaly will be opened in the near future, as soon as complete technical safety of the flights is provided.
The commissioning of the airport is an open violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation -- adopted on December 7, 1944 in Chicago, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said earlier.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the European Civil Aviation Conference (ICAC) support the position of Azerbaijan on the issue.
Musabayov said that Armenian media makes "fantastic assumptions" about possible landing of Russian airborne troops in Nagorno-Karabakh. "Obviously, the people making such assumptions are at odds with common sense and international law."
Any Russian military involvement in the opening of the Khojaly airport would turn Moscow into a sponsor of a blatant military provocation against Azerbaijan with inevitable negative consequences for the Russian-Azerbaijani relations and Russia's mediation mission as an OSCE Minsk Group co-chair aimed at a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he said.
"I am confident that Moscow realizes this and will refrain from supporting Armenia's provocative plans," Musabayov said.
However, if Moscow acts in an inflammatory manner with regards to the Khojaly airport, it will be difficult for Russia to position itself as an impartial and objective mediator, he said.
Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process, Musabayov believes the adherence to the peaceful settlement of the conflict and support for the efforts of the Minsk Group will be publicly reiterated.
"I do not expect any new initiatives from Moscow in this respect," he said. "One can sense that Vladimir Putin has decided to take a break to show not only the futility of all attempts made by the concerned countries and international organizations to make progress in the settlement, but also the inability to make the belligerents sit down at the negotiating table."
According to Musabayov, Putin intends to act on the matter only in case of a dangerous deterioration of the situation with the risk of its sliding into a military confrontation and in response to a direct appeal of not only Baku and Yerevan, but also the international community. One can understand Putin amid ineffective participation in this matter of his predecessor Dmitry Medvedev, who has organized a dozen meetings in the trilateral format with Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, he said.
Western University professor, political analyst Fikret Sadikhov shares the views of Musabayov, saying that the issue of the Khojaly airport will certainly be discussed with Sargsyan during his visit to Moscow and his meeting with President Putin.
However, Russia, as a co-chair of the Minsk Group, must adhere to the statements of the Minsk Group that the launch of the airport would only exacerbate tensions in the region and in the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, he said.
"I do not think that Russia will make any statements differing from those of the Minsk Group. However, Moscow will not make any more objective and clear statements with notes of pressure on Armenia regarding the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, opening of the airport in Khojaly and the intention to start its operation, which is a violation of international law," Sadikhov said.
The expert said that Russia supports long-term political and military cooperation with Armenia; the two countries enjoy unity on many issues.
According to him, no progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be expected after the meeting of Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.