YEREVAN. Jan 24 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan is trying to politicize the airport opening in the unrecognized Karabakh Republic, Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian told a Thursday press conference.
"Azerbaijan is making noise to add political flavor to the opening of the airport in Karabakh. The OSCE Minsk Group intermediaries have asked many times not to politicize this question," Nalbandian said.
As for the latest statements by Azeri officials that it was planned to shoot down civilian planes flying to Karabakh, the minister said, "top-level representatives of Azerbaijan told intermediaries earlier that they would abstain from the use of force or threat to use force as regards civilian planes."
"But threats to shoot down civilian planes are being made again at the very top level in Azerbaijan," the Armenian foreign minister said.
The opening of the Karabakh Airport is unrelated to other aspects of the Karabakh settlement, he noted.
"Neither Armenia nor Karabakh link the airport opening with other issues. The airport opening has only civilian, humanitarian purposes. Azerbaijan cannot keep Karabakh under complete blockade," he said.
The Azeri government has enacted rules that bind an unidentified aircraft detected in its airspace to make an immediate landing or to leave the national airspace.