YEREVAN. – Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s reaction to the announcement on the launch of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic capital city’s Stepanakert Airport was predictable and yet again showed the existence of a politico-military tandem, military analyst Davit Jamalyan stated, during a press conference on Wednesday, commenting on Turkey’s announcement on closing its airspace to Armenia. 

“There are [air] corridors in Armenia, too, and we have our [own] tools whose use could threaten the interests of many parties. Therefore, I don’t think they will stop talking and take action,” the expert said.  

Reflecting on the Azerbaijani threats toward downing civil airplanes, Jamalyan noted: “If they are confident of their impunity, they would do that. But we can give an equivalent response; that is why such threats are mostly of psychological nature.”  

The analyst, however, stressed that by speaking about a response, he does not mean destroying Azerbaijani civil aircrafts. “The response will be disproportionate, accurate, and very painful,” Davit Jamalyan stressed, and added that Stepanakert Airport’s operation and the related threats cannot cause large-scale military actions.       

Photo by Sona Barseghyan