Azerbaijan, which promises to protect the rights and security of the people of Artsakh, has been keeping the Stepanakert airport closed with its threats for 30 years, depriving the people of Artsakh of this most important opportunity to exercise their right to free movement. In 2012, when the Stepanakert airport was put into operation after renovation, the Baku authorities announced in direct text that they would destroy the civil aircraft flying to Stepanakert. Artsakh Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan wrote about this on his Facebook page.
“The cases of civilian infrastructure targeting that we witnessed during the 2020 war were a clear indication that the Azerbaijani leadership is ready and capable of resorting to any kind of military crime, including the targeting of civilian aircraft.
Stepanakert airport was built in 1974, after many demands of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to create the possibility of air communication with Armenia. Stepanakert-Yerevan and Stepanakert-Baku and opposite directions were operating. However, against the current demand, the authorities of Soviet Azerbaijan had set a very limited number of flights to Yerevan.
Various sources testify that parallel to the Artsakh movement, Azerbaijan started taking actions to close the airport. This was done through large-scale construction in the neighboring Ivanyan community, residential houses were being built right next to the runway to obstruct the airport’s operations and to stop it for good.
Civilian transportation from Stepanakert airport was stopped since 1992, as a result of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh.
Around 100.000 civilian flights are carried out every day in the world, transporting people from one place to another, but none of these flights reach Stepanakert.
The policy of discrimination and hatred towards the people of Artsakh was expressed and is expressed in any action taken by Azerbaijan. We expect courage from all structures and individuals interested in the protection of human rights to see, record and oppose the criminal activities of Azerbaijan,” wrote the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh.
