ArmInfo. The provision of airspace by Armenia to the enemy today is the worst possible signal to Iran. This is the opinion of Vardan Voskanyan, head of the Department of Iranian Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Yerevan State University (YSU).
"The provision of airspace by Armenia to an enemy aircraft exactly today and exactly in this direction is the worst possible signal that could be sent to Iran," Voskanyan said.
In turn, Executive Director of the International Center for Human Development, Adviser to the President of Armenia Tevan Poghosyan, responding to the message about the provision of an air corridor to Azerbaijan, in particular said: "Just one question: If the Azerbaijani airspace was never closed to the civil aviation of Armenia, then what was the problem then, that not a single civilian aircraft had ever recovered to Artsakh during all this time? Did the Republic of Artsakh banned or Azerbaijan in the past did not consider Nagorno-Karabakh its own and did not take responsibility? Or if so, why are the planes not flying now, the Russian peacekeepers prohibit, or is there a different reality outside the village of Teg? "
At the same time, Poghosyan was outraged by attempts to present Azerbaijan to the Armenian society in a good light, recalling the statement of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, made two days ago, where the latter promised to break the heads of all Armenians. "Whose interests serve these statements," asked Poghosyan.
It should be noted that today the media in Armenia were flooded with information that the country's authorities allowed AZAL to use the country's airspace. This information was replicated against the background of Iran closing its sky for the Azerbaijani Air Force and caused an ambiguous reaction. These actions of the Armenian authorities were criticized by both opposition MPs and the general public. Later, the Civil Aviation Committee (CAC) of Armenia made a report on the implementation of the airspace of Armenia by the Azerbaijani airline AZAL from today for the implementation of passenger flights from Baku to Nakhichevan. The Committee confirmed that on October 6 this year, the Baku-Nakhijevan flight was carried out over the airspace of the Republic of Armenia. "The use of the airspace by civil aircraft of both the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan was not limited, except for the period of the 44-day war. The flights on this route were carried out continuously until November 8, 2014, after which the Azerbaijani side, on its own initiative, stopped using the airspace of the Republic of Armenia. All this time, flights from the Zvartnots airport through the airspace of Azerbaijan to other countries continue, as well as in the opposite direction, " the message says.
It was also added that a permit for transit flights is not issued by the aviation authorities of Armenia, since according to the established procedures, permission for transit flights by civilian vessels is not required. "The right to choose air routes remains with the operators of the aircraft," the aviation department said in a statement.
To note, in the course of Azerbaijan's large-scale military aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh, Baku used civilian ships to transport terrorists and mercenaries from Nakhichevan to the conflict zone.