ICAO again warns against illegal flights to Khojaly airport
By Sara Rajabova
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has once again confirmed its disapproval of attempts to open regular flights to the Khojaly airport in the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia, according to Azerbaijan's State Civil Aviation Administration's website.
ICAO cited the inadmissibility of unauthorized flights to the airport of Khojaly, and this position was confirmed by the organization's Secretary General Raymond Benjamin during a meeting with the Azerbaijani delegation that participated at the 38th session of the ICAO assembly in Montreal.
During the meeting, organized upon the request of the Azerbaijani side, the delegation, headed by Director of the State Civil Aviation Administration Fuad Guliyev, raised the issue regarding the illegal flights to Khojaly.
The delegation also included Azerbaijani ambassador to Canada Farid Shafiev, counselor at the Azerbaijani embassy in Canada Eljan Habibzade, and senior official of the Administration Samir Baghirov.
"The ICAO secretary general has confirmed the inadmissibility of unauthorized flights over Azerbaijan, the territorial integrity of which is recognized by the UN and confirmed by the relevant UN Security Council resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh," the statement said.
The meeting was also attended by the Director of ICAO European and North Atlantic Office (Paris), Luis Fonseca de Almeida.
According to the statement, the mentioned issue has also been raised by Baku during a meeting with Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Tony Tyler.
Noting the Azerbaijani peaceful efforts to prevent flights to the Khojaly airport, the IATA management reaffirmed its commitment to ICAO's position and disapproval of the efforts on opening regular flights to Azerbaijan's occupied territories.
Commissioning of the Khojaly airport is an open violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation signed in Chicago on December 7, 1944.
Azerbaijan has banned the use of airspace over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is occupied by Armenia, as no one can guarantee the safety of flights over this territory, Azerbaijan's Civil Aviation Administration said earlier.
The Armenian steps to operate the airport in Khojaly are attempts to violate international legal norms. This air space belongs to Azerbaijan, therefore, its use by Armenia is not possible.
Moreover, international organizations and foreign countries have condemned Armenia's attempts to commission the airport in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan as an open violation of international law and said this could damage the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution.
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, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.
Mediators from Russia, France and the U.S. -- co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group -- have been brokering peace talks over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since the 1994 ceasefire, but their efforts have not produced any result yet.