Azerbaijan says Karabakh separatists 'pose threat' to flights

BAKU: Azerbaijan on Saturday accused Armenian separatists in its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region of using radio interference against passenger aircraft in its airspace, as the arch-foe countries are to hold EU-mediated peace talks.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan are set to meet Saturday in Brussels for a round of talks aimed at resolving the conflict for the control of Armenian-populated Karabakh.

European Council President Charles Michel will mediate the discussions, which come amid renewed tensions after Azerbaijan closed the Lachin corridor, the sole land link between Karabakh and Armenia.

Armenian separatist forces in Karabakh “use radio interference against GPS navigation systems of local and foreign airlines’ passenger aircraft flying through our country’s airspace,” Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said.

The alleged interference impacted two Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft on Thursday, the ministry said.

“Such incidents pose a serious threat to aviation safety,” according to the statement.

Karabakh’s rebel authorities denied the claims, calling them an “absolute lie.”

On Friday, some 6,000 people rallied in Karabakh to demand the reopening of the Lachin corridor.

Local separatists, warning of a humanitarian crisis, urged Moscow — a traditional power broker in the region — to ensure free movement through the road.

Azerbaijan later allowed the Red Cross to resume medical evacuations from Karabakh to Armenia.

Karabakh has been at the centre of a decades-long territorial dispute between the two countries, which have fought two wars over the mountainous territory, mainly populated by Armenians.

In autumn 2020, Russia sponsored a ceasefire agreement that ended six weeks of fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces for control of Karabakh.

The deal saw Armenia cede swathes of territories it had controlled for decades, while Russia deployed peacekeepers which are manning the five-kilometre-wide Lachin Corridor to ensure free passage between Armenia and Karabakh.