Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

State Minister at the German Foreign Office Cornelia Pieper has issued a statement on behalf of the government regarding the Khojaly airport n Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region under Armenian occupation.

The statement reads that the resumption of aviation at the airport without the permission of the Azerbaijani side would contradict the spirit of the ceasefire agreement reached between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1994 and would carry the risk of an escalation of the Karabakh conflict.

"The OSCE Minsk-Group Co-Chairmen declared on July 13 in 2012 that re-opening of the airport could not be used for changing the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and they called on all sides to seek a diplomatic solution and to act in accordance with international law," the paper reads.

Earlier, Armenian media reported about the intended commissioning of the Khojaly airport in Nagorno-Karabakh in the near future.

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 Federal Government, together with their partners in the European Union, supports the OSCE Minsk Group's calls to Armenia and Azerbaijan on the necessity of refraining from any activity that could fuel tensions further and obstacle the peaceful solution, the statement reads.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and European Civil Aviation Conference support Azerbaijan's position on the issue. Document No.121 on airports of the ICAO cited the Khojaly airport as property of Azerbaijan.

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.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a brutal war in the early 1990s that concluded with the signing of a fragile cease-fire. Since the war, the Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. Peace talks brokered by the Minsk Group have been mostly fruitless so far.