Azerbaijan and Turkey not to take radical steps towards Stepanakert airport- Armenian NA deputy

YEREVAN, October 8. /ARKA/. Azerbaijan and Turkey will not undertake any radical steps if Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s Airport starts operating, Head of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs of the National Assembly of Armenia Artak Zakarian said Monday.

“If Azerbaijan, despite anything, takes radical steps, it will exacerbate its reputation, exacerbated after the “Safarov case,” on the international arena,” he said at the press briefing.

According to him, the aggressive actions against the civil aviation are at odds with all norms of the international law, and the international community will not accept it. 

At present, Stepanakert airport is completely ready for operating flights. It was officially commissioned on October 1. 

The new Stepanakert Airport will initially serve 100 passengers per hour, and passenger traffic will be carried out by Air Artsakh. 

Flights, to Yerevan and back, in the initial phase will be implemented every other day and in the future along with the growing demand their frequency will grow. The airport will be able to operate flights to other destinations as well. The investments to construction of the airport totaled nearly $ 5 million.

Azerbaijani authorities would warn of “corresponding measures” if Nagorno-Karabakh resumed flights. The Azerbaijani State Civil Aviation Administration said that the planned Yerevan-Stepanakert flights would constitute an “invasion” of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized airspace and that “taking corresponding measures in connection with that is inevitable

But in a statement issued in July, the U.S., Russian, and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group said they “received renewed assurances from the sides that they will reject any threat or use of force against civil aircraft, pursue the matter through diplomatic steps, and refrain from politicizing the issue.” -0-