Azerbaijan never did and never will use force against civil objects, the spokesman for Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Elkhan Polukhov stated, expressing bewilderment over the stir raised around the issue.

Earlier, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan promised to be the first passenger of the plane bound for the newly built Stepanakert airport.

The 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.

Earlier, the U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza made a statement unacceptability of force application by Azerbaijan against civilian planes bound for Nagorno Karabakh.