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State Civil Aviation Administration: Armenia has not given any official reply to Azerbaijanâ€™s concern and warning over Khankendi airport

30 March 2011 13:41 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov â€“ APA. Azerbaijanâ€™s appeal to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to prevent Armenians from building an illegal airport and organizing illegal flights to the occupied territories is a warning, Deputy Director of Azerbaijan State Civil Aviation Administration Fuad Guliyev told APA. Guliyev said the Azerbaijani side is solid for the warning and statements.
â€œWe have stated several times and reiterate that all flights to our occupied territories are illegal. They will be prevented within the framework of the legislation,â€ he said.

Deputy Director said ICAO told Azerbaijan State Civil Aviation Administration that organization had informed Yerevan about Azerbaijanâ€™s concern and warning.

Fuad Guliyev said separatist Nagorno Karabakh regime is not recognized as an independent country.
â€œMoreover, if Azerbaijan State Civil Aviation Administration does not issue a certificate to the airport built in Khankendi, which is an integral part of Azerbaijan, this airport will not be able to get international status,â€ he said.

Fuad Guliyev said they had not received any official written reply from the Armenian side to Azerbaijanâ€™s appeal and warning through ICAO.

Director of Azerbaijan State Civil Aviation Administration Arif Mammadov had said physical destructive measures would be taken against the planes flying to Khankendi airport ignoring Azerbaijanâ€™s warning. Civil Aviation Administration agreed with Defense Ministry and sent a warning letter to the ICAO in October, 2010. Following the statements, OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and US ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza called official Baku to avoid such step. Moreover, Armenian side makes different statements too. They say that such efforts of Baku will be prevented, even Azerbaijani planes will not be allowed to fly over Armenia to Nakhchivan and Turkey.

Taking stance on Armenian statements, Azerbaijani experts on aviation consider that all military and civil missiles flying over the occupied territories are considered as â€œenemyâ€. National and international laws let Azerbaijan take appropriate measures against the violation of air space in the internationally recognized territories.

Air Defense Troopsâ€™ experts declare that they are able to carry out measures against each military and civil aircrafts flying to Azerbaijanâ€™s Khankendi airport. If close location of Khankendi airport to the front-line is taken into consideration, Air Defense Troops can annihilate those aircrafts by using C-125 or C-200 complexes. At the same time, it is possible to destroy navigation system of those aircrafts by using modern radioelectronic methods, and annihilate them without using any force. According to the words of experts, at present, Azerbaijanâ€™s air defense systems can control not only the flights over Nagorno Karabakh, but also all the flights over Armenia. Civil aircrafts fly especially at altitudes of 8-10 km, their speed is lower than the military ones. Moreover, aircrafts rising from Khankendi may be annihilated till the level of maximum altitude.

Note that, the first flight to Khankendi is considered to realize on May 9 of this year.