Official Baku will not permit Armenia to conduct civil aviation flights over the air space of “occupied” Nagorno-Karabakh, but it will do this without the use of military means, Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov stated, the Azerbaijani media report.   

“The Azerbaijani side will not permit illegal flights over its air space. [But,] on the other hand, Azerbaijan certainly is not preparing to destroy civil aircrafts.” Azimov said this to news reporters Monday, commenting on Collective Security Treaty Organization Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha’s statement—during his recent visit to Armenia and in response to the question posed by Armenian News-NEWS.am—that he does not consider serious the chances of Azerbaijan downing the Armenian civil aircrafts, if they fly to the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic capital city Stepanakert airport.      

Azimov noted that the Convention on International Civil Aviation—also known as the Chicago Convention—has corresponding rules, which Azerbaijan likewise has accepted. 

“They are the rules for intercepting a plane on the air, to prevent any unlawful flight. That is why it is incorrect when someone attempts to manipulate whether or not Azerbaijan will attack civil objects.   

Bordyuzha could be joking. I do not know him personally and cannot say anything about his character. I was not beside him [when he said that], and therefore I do not know under what circumstances he said that. That is why we can consider such statement as a mere rough joke,” the Azerbaijani deputy FM said.