Azerbaijan’s threats to shoot down Artsakh-bound aircrafts unacceptable for U.S.

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie L. Yovanovitch said the U.S. considers Azerbaijan’s threats to eliminate aircrafts flying to Stepanakert airport to be unacceptable.

“Similar threats do not proceed from the principles, which should be observed by Azerbaijan in a peace resolution of the Karabakh conflict,” Yovanovitch said in Yerevan, answering a question of a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

According to her, the U.S. attaches importance to all the three principles for the Karabakh conflict settlement, but the most important one is non-use of force.

Earlier, Baku threatened to shoot down civilian planes flying to Karabakh after reopening of Stepanakert airport. As Baku's state aviation agency said it has informed the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) that the region's airspace was closed and any flights would be unauthorized. "According to the law on aviation, it is even possible to physically destroy airplanes which are heading there," Arif Mammadov, director of Azerbaijan's Civil Aviation Administration, said in comments to local media. "We asked the ICAO to notify the opposing side in order to prevent incidents," he said.

Stepanakert airport will be ready for operation in May 2011.