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25 May 2017

Apa.Az

Azerbaijan will appeal to relevant international organizations over the planned flights from Khojaly airport, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev told APA on Thursday. Hajiyev made the remarks while commenting on the Armenian side’s attempt to organize flights from the Khojaly airport in the occupied Azerbaijani territories under the guise of tourism.

 “Armenia’s plans to carry out flights from the airport in Azerbaijan’s Khojaly district occupied by Armenian armed forces, under the guise of tourism, is another Armenian provocation,” said the spokesman, stressing that such provocative actions seriously undermine the negotiation process and deliberately serve to escalate the conflict. 

He added that the airspace of the occupied territories is the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan.

 “The Khojaly airport is Azerbaijan’s property by the special code of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Azerbaijan banned flights in the airspace over the occupied territories, since it is impossible to ensure the safety of flights in this part of Azerbaijan’s airspace. This position of Azerbaijan is supported by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the European Civil Aviation Conference,” Hajiyev noted. 

He went on to say that Armenia’s attempts to operate the Khojaly airport and carry out illegal flights is a gross violation of the Law on Aviation of the Republic of Azerbaijan, peremptory norms and principles of international law, the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, rules and regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Azerbaijan calls on the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, responsible for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, to take measures to prevent another provocation of Armenia, stressed Hajiyev.

 “In general, Armenia’s illegal actions and economic activity in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories and efforts to plunder natural resources, destroy material and cultural facilities, change the demographic situation through a policy of resettlement, use the Khojaly genocide seriously damage the negotiation process and are aimed at the annexation of Azerbaijan’s occupied territories,” said the spokesman.

Azerbaijan, using international legal means in order to prevent another provocation by Armenia, will appeal to relevant international structures especially the Civil Aviation Authority and the Interstate Council on Aviation and Use of Airspace, noted Hajiyev.