Azerbaijan. Baku, Feb.6 / Trend, I.Izzet /
British MP made a statement regarding Armenia's illegal plans for Khojaly airport.
"Legally, Khojaly airport cannot operate, as unauthorised flights through Azerbaijani airspace are not permitted without that government's sanction," British MP Chris Pincher, Member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee and chair of the Azerbaijan All-Party Parliamentary Group said commenting on Armenia's illegal plans for Khojaly airport, the European Azerbaijan Society told Trend.
"The proposal to open the airport may have as much to do with low politics as high principle. The right time to start talking about re-opening the airport is once the hostilities are over, and when the people who were expelled from their homes and who currently languish in displaced person camps are given the chance to return to their homes," he said.
Earlier, Armenian media reported on the commissioning of the airport at Khojaly in the near future.
Commissioning the airport is an open violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation [adopted on December 7, 1944 in Chicago], the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported earlier.
In this regard, Azerbaijan will strengthen the legal level use of the application of the Chicago convention.
Azerbaijan banned the use of the airspace over Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Armenia, as no one can guarantee a safe air corridor in the area, the head of the Azerbaijani Civil Aviation Administration, Arif Mammadov said earlier.
He said Armenia's steps towards the operation of the airport are attempts to violate international aviation law. This air space belongs to Azerbaijan, so its use by Armenia is illegal.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the European Civil Aviation Conference (ICAC) also support the position of Azerbaijan on this issue.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.