Azerbaijan’s threats to shoot down Artsakh-bound aircrafts unacceptable for U.S.March 23, 2011 - 16:57 AMT 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. Top stories President of the Armenian parliament Alen Simonyan met with the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova. Achieving stable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains a priority of the OSCE, said Ian Borg. The Cabinet of Ministers decided on Thursday, November 9 to allocated AMD 120 million to arrange the gathering. Michael Roth believes sanctions must be put on the table after Baku‘s ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. Partner news | Armenia: Rescue workers restore pedestrian bridge for flood-hit community Rescue workers on Wednesday, June 5 restored a pedestrian bridge in the town of Alaverdi in Armenia’s north. U.S. “deeply troubled” by Azerbaijan's arrest of civil society members The United States is deeply troubled by the continued arrest of members of Azerbaijani civil society, Matthew Miller has said. Turkey condemns Uruguay’s recognition of Armenian Genocide Turkey has condemned a newly passed law in Uruguay that recognizes the Armenian Genocide, TRT reports. For the first time, Armenia votes in favor of Georgia resolution in UN Armenia on Tuesday, June 4 voted for the first time in favor a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. |