Official Baku fears Stepanakert airport opening

PanARMENIAN.Net - Opening of the airport is dedicated to liberation of Shushi, and no one doubts that it will open exactly on May 9. According to head of the Department of Civil Aviation of NKR, Dmitry Atbashyan, by this date Stepanakert airport will be fully ready for operation. The very next day after Atbashyan’s statement, director of the State Civil Aviation Administration of Azerbaijan Arif Mammadov announced Azerbaijan would shoot down the aircraft that would be landing at the Stepanakert airport. The Azeri side has already managed to complain to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). “We notified that the airspace over Karabakh is closed. The Law on Aviation envisages physical destruction of airplanes landing on this territory,” Mammadov said. Moreover, official Baku considers itself entitled “to destroy any planes that will come to land at the airport of Stepanakert”. According to Mammadov, the ICAO management recommended making every effort to avoid possible negative effects in the region. In ordinary language, ICAO warned Azerbaijan against use of force. Let us note that dictators, in general, love to shoot down passenger planes, and in this respect Ilham Aliyev is no better than Muammar Gaddafi. The difference is that the Libyan leader did shoot down planes, while Ilham Aliyev fears. But just in case, there are statements made on behalf of Aliyev, and they should be taken seriously by the international community. One may even say that Official Baku fears opening of the Stepanakert airport, as it may become another window on the world for Nagorno-Karabakh. It is also possible that thanks to the airport there will rise the number of people who want to travel to Karabakh and it is what Ilham Aliyev does not approve of. Neither is it excluded that the “black list” of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry will expand...

Apparently, this attack of Baku against the Republic of Artsakh was not well thought out, for the leadership through Arif Mammadov received a response from U.S. Ambassador Matthew Bryza, who apparently surprised everyone in Azerbaijan by declaring about the inadmissibility of using force against civilian aircraft en route to Nagorno Karabakh. Once again Baku forgot the simple truth: no matter how well an ambassador treats his host country, the most essential thing for him is interests of the country he represents, in this case, those of the United States. The USA that turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to the arming of Azerbaijan, its bellicose rhetoric, violation of the ceasefire regime, finally made it clear to Aliyev that its patience is not unlimited. Baku is given freedom of action, but only within well-defined borders. Washington is well aware that even the attempt to shoot down a civilian airplane in the sky over Artsakh would definitely result in war. “We urge the sides to work together to resolve all issues of commercial aviation safety prior to the planned opening of a new airport in Nagorno-Karabakh,” the diplomat said in an interview to RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service. “Any slight attempt Azerbaijan might take will be fraught with unpredictable consequences for Azerbaijan itself,” declared David Babayan, head of the Central Information Department at the Office of the President of Artsakh.

And what will come out of this is quite easy to predict. Russia and Iran will not stand by, Turkey and the United States, either. As a result there will break out a regional war that could easily spread throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, the more so when under the current circumstances striking a match is enough to blow up half the world.

“Azerbaijan seeks to scare Artsakh people into refraining from airport services. We are resolute in our intention to open the airport, no matter whom it vexes in Azerbaijan. And if Azerbaijan makes even a slight attempt to carry out her intentions, it is going to be fraught with unpredictable consequences for this country itself,” Babayan stressed.