Karabakh airspace closed for Azerbaijani air force only – presidential spokesman

YEREVAN, November 13. /ARKA/. Airspace over Karabakh is closed indeed, but only for Azerbaijani air force, head of press office of the president of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) David Babayan said in commenting the recent statement by Azerbaijani foreign ministry after the shooting-down of a Karabakhi helicopter. On Wednesday NKR’s ministry of defense reported Azerbaijan downed a Karabakhi MI-24 helicopter operating a training flight. In general, the situation along the line of contact is stable, but Azerbaijan is still keeping the incident location under fire, Babayan said. “It is another act of vandalism and terrorism by a country that has eventually turned into a Nazi state hounding also their own civil society, human rights activists and the opposition”, Babayan said. In commenting the yesterday’s statement by OSCE Minsk Group Babayan said it is balanced and contains no condemnation of the attacking side. But the important thing is the co-chairs once again re-affirm unacceptability of use of force, he said. In their Wednesday’s statement the co-chairs said they are deeply worried by the development and described the incident as “the first of its kind” since the ceasefire agreement was reached in the conflict zone in 1994. The mediators called on the sides to avoid escalation of tensions. –0--