BAKU, YEREVAN (Combined Sources)—Azerbaijan’s cabinet on Friday issued document on use of airspace, which allows official Baku to shoot down civilian aircraft deemed to violate Azeri airspace, reported APA news agency.
The document, the use of which is obviously intended to thwart plans to open the airport in Stepanakert, allow the government of Azerbaijan to declare certain areas “banned zones and limited zones,” hence allowing the government to randomly shoot down aircraft it deems in violation of Azeri airspace.
“If the aircraft does not obey orders to land and there is no exact information about innocent passengers onboard, the legislation permits the government to shoot down the aircraft,” reported APA.
Armenia fired back by saying that its Air Force will ensure the safety of Stepanakert Airport.
Armenia’s Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian told reporters Friday ”The Armenian Air Force will run the operation and flights of civil aircraft,” and will be ready to defend and ensure the safety of flights.
Stepanakert airport was built in 1974 and was mostly used to accommodate flights from Yerevan and Baku. In 1992 the airport ceased operations. In 2008 work began on the construction of a new passenger terminal resembling stretched wings of an eagle. In the course of this period the runway was also expanded, by leveling several adjacent hills and completely modernized the facility.
Since official Stepanakert’s announcement of its intention to open the newly rebuilt Stepanakert airport, Baku has threatened to down civilian planes. International mediators have urged a diplomatic solution to the issue.
Baku’s cabinet decision Friday signals that Azerbaijan and its authorities are unwilling to work under international norms and are determined to cause harm to civilians at their random discretion.
On a lighter note, the Artsakh Public Television and the Voice of Artsakh Musical Society have produced a skit, which was entirely shot at the Stepanakert airport.
After airing the segment, the television station was flooded with calls from viewers who wanted to know whether the airport has, in fact, become operational.
azerbaijan = monsters
Wow. The bark of the DOG is getting louder and louder. If these terrorists ever do take these steps, then Armenia should return the favor, and since we are dealing with “Two Terrorists, One Criminal”, the Armenian airspace from Kars to Cilicia should also be fair game!
These Azeri dogs only bark ..
What a terrorist act. Armenian fighters must protect the civilians Stapanakert airport is part of Armenia. Baku has no right to stopp civil aircrafts landind at Stepanakert airport.
You wrote
“Baku’s cabinet decision Friday signals that Azerbaijan and its authorities are unwilling to work under international norms and are determined to cause harm to civilians at their random discretion.”
It is overdue for the Armenian authorities to realize that waiting or doing business with the present Azeri government is counterproductive and to our disadvantage. It is time to wake up and smell the coffee and realize that confrontation is inevitable.
Armenia should have a dummy run to the Stepanakert airport and test the Azeri response,if the Azeris dare to fire on our aircraft Armenia should take out all the necessary military installations in order to neutralise the threat,as its a waste of time talking to the Azeris.
keep at it azerbaijan, youre just making our retaliation more justified. youre signing the death warrant for your own people
One of this days Baku is going to go down like a pack of cards and it will be their ugly leader Aliyef who will be shut down by his very own people but until that glorious time, the Armenian government should do everything in its power to ensure total safety from the barbarians!
As the Armenian youth in America, we are appalled by the decision the Azeri government has made regarding the policies on aircraft safety. It is the civilians who ride these air crafts and should have no business with government affairs. A government should not interfere with civilian rights, let alone open fire at their own discretion. Abusing the power that is handed to a government is no diplomatic advancement. It is a sign of fear and insecurity to attempt to hurt the innocent civilian population. As a class, we believe that these actions are being taking in order to discourage tourism in our country, and lessen the population as much as possible, along with destroying the infrastructure we have created for years. It comes at a time where the Armenian population is pushing the recognition of Nagorno-Karabagh as an independent country. This law is proof of the barbaric and inhumane mindset the Azeri government is trying to instill in it’s people, thus preventing them from further civil advancements. However, we believe that this can only be considered a threat, as it is something impossible to execute without interference from other countries that are prepared to suppress these actions.
The shooting of civilian aircraft by Baku’s stooges will be considered by civilized countries as a crime of humanity. However, it is not a surprise as the stooges are copying their leader’s (Stalin) steps.
Հայուն Երկաթէ ակռաները,
Եթէ Ազրպէյճան մոռցաւ 1990-ի հայուն երկաթէ ակռաները, այս անգամ կը տեսնէ զանոնք աւելի սուր եւ աւելի փայլուն, մեծ շլացումով.
Կատակ չի վերցներ.
Վահան Վանական
In light of repeated aggressive Azeri threats RA ought to inform int’l media, as well as UN assembly before commencing flights .It should be made clear especially to OSCE MInsk Group-mediators of the NK conflict- that such attitude is quassi declaration of war and Azerbaijan should be given notice to stop such anouncements,which will impede further peace-resolution negotiations.
What’s more if F-Ministers of both Armenia and Azerbaijan are to meet end of this month in Paris,the former may decline doing so ,not just for this issue, but also long overdue Azeri Govt. to ask excuse for making a hero of an aze murderer and bestowing on him title of the hero of Azerbaijan…
The Iron Teeth of Armenia:
If Azerbaidjan forgot the 1990 Iron Teeth of Armenia, they will see them now more Sharp and more Birllant , with great surprize.
And this will not be a joke.
Vahan Vanagan
I personally do not believe that any country should have its airspace to dictate when amd only when it comes to civilian aircraft provided that aircraft is only transporting civilian passengers and not used for any other purposes.
Baku is asking for trouble and sounds like to me and i’m sure to many like me that this is total terrorism from our point of view and You all know we the west don’t negotiate with terrorists , so Baku can talk all they want to , looks like they are the ones that want to start a new war and i ask God forbid if that happens the rest of the world will not sit there and watch Baku terrorize civilian airliners.
nobody is condeming this? the UN anyone? they should reconize Artsakh indepenendce like south sudan
I hope this time our government will have the power and guts to do something that will hurt Azerbaijan. The case of the murdered Armenian soldier in his sleep was a fiasco and already forgotten thanks to our government inaptitude. We are following the policy of “turning the other cheek” when slapped, but how many cheeks do we have for God’s sake?!!
The Azeri were not capable to rage battle on the ground and failed, their failure this time will be
in the air. Second, I think these Azeri do not know and do not want to obey by the International Law
about Civil Aviation. third, Internation Agreements to settle the Gharabagh issue is not ready yet. It means that Gharabagh keeps its status quo. When a land is free, its airspace is free. The Gharabagh Airlines will not fly over Giancha, or Sapirabad or Baku.
After all, would be possible for the Armenians to live in Azarbayjan? No way. The whole Europe, Russia, China want a cosrtuctive dialogue. For them a dialogue consistes of slaughering Armenians in their beds.
As i said Baku has been warned by world powers and they are the USA – RUSSIA – FRANCE & OTHER MAJOR WORLD POWERS NOT TO USE FORCE OF ANY MEANS AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF NAGORNO KHARABAGH AND AFTER ALL THIS BAKU STILL WANTS TO USE FORCE AS WE ALL KNOW THAT SHOOTING DOWN A CIVILIAN AIRPLANE IS AN ACT OF WAR AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF NAGORNO KHARABAGH AND HER GUARANTOR ARMENIA AND WE THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE HAVE ONE CHOICE AND ONLY ONE CHOICE TO DEFEND OUR MOTHERLAND FROM ANY AGGRESSION .
I have a problem with the title: how is it possible to ‘legalize’ what amounts to murdering civilians ?
{“….which allows official Baku to shoot down civilian aircraft …”}: No law can be passed that ‘legally allows’ any country in the world to murder civilians, not even during war. That is why there is a thing called War Crime.
Just because a bunch of axe-murderer glorifying savages give themselves the right to murder Armenians, does not make it ‘legally allowable’.
What if some Armenian cabinet issued a document that ‘legalized’ bombing Baku to rubble: would that be ‘legal’ ? Of course not.
Axerbaijan’s psychopath leaders keep descending to deeper levels of madness: hopefully they won’t do anything stupid that will result in the deaths of thousands of innocent people, including thousands of innocents in Azerbaijan.
Essentially, it is a declaration of war – an act of war – they are asking for it – and they will get a humiliating defeat – even with US SD silent support of Azerbaijan. The US State Department continues to tacitly bolster Azerbaijan’s war rhetoric and flow of arms supply and military advisers by two of the US SD staunch allies, Israel and Turkey. This is the same US SD hat has done nothing substantial to lift a NATO-ally Turkey’s blockade of Armenia’s western frontier for two decades. This is the same US SD that has lifted the Congress’ arms embargo on Azerbaijan and continues to ship direct made in USA weapons to Azerbaijan. And, yes this is the work of the US SD that has fired its ambassador for uttering the word genocide and continues to be complicit in Turkey’s genocide denial. Any surprise that the US SD will support Azerbaijan against Armenia in an inevitable war?
Take a look at the map. Flights from Stepanakert will not pass anywhere near Azeri held territory, so they will not be able to shoot it from the ground, they can only do it by use of military aircraft, which will come under our air defence (and Russian) fire if it enters the airspace of Karabagh or Armenia. This is another empty threat. Open the airport, lets fly to Karabagh!
Russia sold S-300 Air Defense systems to Azerbaijan. S-300 has a range of about 200 kilometers.
So technically, if Azeris get a clear line of site to the passenger airplane to get a radar fix, they can shoot it down from their own territory. S-300 is mobile, so presumably they can move it to some high ground.
Whether the Azeri leadership is crazy enough to take the fatal step of actually doing it is an open question.
With all due respect Mr. Malayan, there is no need for an interceptor aircraft, a surface to air missile can be launched from Azeri territory and still hit a plane in the airspace over Artsakh. This is the most likely scenario, they’d be stupid (though they have shown little signs of intelligence before) to send a manned jet on a suicide mission. Of course, they first have to avoid being shut down themselves by our air defense forces, which have installations dotted all over NK and Armenia proper. And the same can be applied vice versa. We have the capability to hit deep within Azerbaijan, even Baku itself. They are well aware of this, and that’s why I am confident that their bark will never become a bite.
Beautiful website, by the way.
Who are the azeris ordering and what rights do they have on Armenian-Artsakhi airspace? And what
information about innocent civilians have they the right to know? Are the azeris innocent in the first place ?
And was ilham haidar(geidar) aliev legally elected ? And do the azeri elite approve of their “illegal government” ‘s
illegal and irrational moves and reckless acts? This time, if the azeris prompt another all out war, there won’t be
a “geidar (baba) aliev” to make a mediation and the Armenian Defence Forces will be invincibly unstoppable
and imperatively aggressive !!! Let them dare to open the gates of hell another time, if they’ve got any balls left in their pants!!!
Free Eagles don’t get threatened by hound dog barks! 😉
They are sick in their heads. The interesting thing is that in the beginning they denied it, just like in the immediate aftermath of Budapest murder they actually “offered their regrets” to family of Margaryan. Then they proclaimed Safarov hero. Which are the mecanisms in play here? The lack of Armenian response to provocations, i.e. Armenian defensive behaviour both in direct relations with Azerbaijan and on the international arena.
It is sad to say, but the only thing that would stop Azeris to openly hail Safarov would be the retaliation of that murder. But they see that for 8 years Armenians have failed to retaliate and therefor they get bolder for every year that passes.
Sad but true.
The NKR government should start to explore for oil in the Nor Maragha area of Karabagh. Nor Maragha is 10 km away from the original town of Maragha which had oil deposits. The Azeris massacred the Armenians in the town of Maragha so that they could have the oil for themselves.http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/politics/news/66841/. Oil wealth can bring prosperity to the NKR and Armenia even if the oil is only used for domestic consumption because buying oil and petroleum products is a huge drain on the Armenian economy.
Armenian should buy some advanced variants of the MIG 29 .
This is what happenes when you give a uneducated Goverment of barbarians money and power !
Really you want to shoot down civilian comercial Airplane?
Well I guess when you can murder a man with a axe in his sleep shooting down Civilian Planes is just a nother day at the office for the Azerbaijan Goverment!
What is even more crazy the EU sits dowm with these clowns .
My question to the EU is are things that bad in Europe?
“Baku Legalizes Attacks on [civil] Aircraft”… is another way of saying ‘Pouring from the empty into the void’. Since when it became legal to attack a civilian aircraft?
So, Axerbaijan lost the ground war, now trying to win the “air war” like terrorism? Very interesting about Sultan’s intention and his fake corrupted cabinet.
if they want to be the most stupid nation on earth by violating international law , then
watch the Armenian forces …………… cry Azerbaijan cry !
The nomd Azeri-Turk criminals, alike their grand fathers Timour Leng and Gengis Khan do not know about International Law. They violated, massacered and distroyed all through the history.
They have the enormous quantity of arms, they are very impressive, but they will never be used.
Russia supplies the arms, to get the money.
Russia will never let them to start the war, not against Armenia, not against Iran.
And, in case, Armenia has the capacity to destroy Azerbaidjan.
Vahan Vanagan
The Azeris would not be barking so loud if they didn’t have the full support of USA,GB,Turkey,and Israel.
This is the bottom line, as the Azeris would not even dream of shooting down a civilian plane.
Where is the condemnation from the US State Department? Where is Mr. Heffern? He sure fooled a lot Armenians on his two weeks trip. Ambassador Heffern can tell Armenians to go to hell in such a way that they actually look forward to the trip.
Don’t get so angry at the Azeris – get angry with the US State Department that supports them tacitly.
If Armenian’s are betting on Russia to protect them from Azeri aggression, they should not be so sure, from back in History Russia has many times abondoned it’s allies and friends, not far ago starting from the days of Gammal Abdel Nasr of Egypt to now.
Thank you for your concern – nice try.
We do not need to bet on Russia or anybody else to protect ourselves from “Azeri aggression” also known as oral diarrhea. Even Artsakh itself is capable of putting an end to this artificial fake sultanate should they try to provoke them.
Armenia and Russia are members of a military defense alliance. Nasser just had a kiss in the lips from Brezhnev. Please compare oranges to oranges next time.
yes,ARMENIA AND RUSSIA ARE ALLIES,RUSSIA IS THE BEST ALLY ARMENIA CAN HAVE, AZERI FORCES SPENT BILLIONS FOR ARMS (DRONES,S -300 ETC.) AND IF THERE IS A SECOND WAR IT WILL BE MUCH TOUGHER WAR BUT ARMENIA WILL STILL WIN! IT IS MY VIEW THAT THE UGLY KING ALIYEV AND HIS CLAN WOULD HAVE ATTACKED ARMENIA THE SAME SECOND IF THEY KNOW THEY HAVE CHANCE TO WIN THE WAR.