Stepanakert Airport () or Khojaly Airport () is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

in the town of Khojaly, 10 kilometers north-east of

Stepanakert Stepanakert officially Khankendi is a city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. It was the capital city of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh prior to the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. The airport, in the

Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh (, ; ) is a region in Azerbaijan, covering the southeastern stretch of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. Part of the greater region of Karabakh, it spans the area between Lower Karabakh and Syunik Province, Syunik. Its ter ...

region, had been under the control of the self-proclaimed

Republic of Artsakh Artsakh ( ), officially the Republic of Artsakh or the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh ( ), was a breakaway state in the South Caucasus whose territory was internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan. Between 1991 and 2023, Artsakh cont ...

from 1992 to 2023. Flights ceased with the escalation of the

First Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic conflict, ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nag ...

in 1990. In 2009, the Armenian authorities began the reconstruction of the facilities. Though it was scheduled to launch the first commercial flights on May 9, 2011, NKR officials postponed the new reopening date throughout 2011. In May 2012, the director of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Civil Aviation Administration, Tigran Gabrielyan, announced that the airport would begin operations in mid-2012. However, as the

International Civil Aviation Organization The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sch ...

effectively recognizes Azerbaijan’s authority over the airport, which has an Azerbaijan-assigned

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...

, UBBS, Azerbaijan could veto any plans to start civilian flights. Azerbaijan took control of the airport following the announcement of the dissolution of Artsakh Republic in September 2023.

Facilities

The airport is located at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. It has one

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

designated 05/23 with an

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

surface measuring .

History

By the end of 1980 the airport served regular passenger flights from

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

. With the escalation of the Karabakh conflict, the authorities of the

Azerbaijan SSR The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union be ...

blockaded the

Armenian SSR The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia bordered the Soviet republics ...

; the

Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was an Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union, autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic that was created on July 7, 1923. Its capital was the city of Stepanakert. The majori ...

(or NKAO) airport was the only means of communication with the outside world from the Karabakh region. The airport has been under the control of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic since the ceasefire agreement of the

in 1994.

Renovation

In 2009, the construction of a new passenger terminal began. Repair work was also conducted on the main runway. According to Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Urban Development Minister Karen Shahramanian, the terminal building would be completed in November 2010; however this was delayed until April 2011. Air navigation equipment was also installed. The authorities claim that the renovated airport will be capable of receiving 200 passengers every hour. On April 5, 2011, it was announced that the opening of the airport had been postponed. Dmitry Adbashyan, the head of NKR Civil Aviation Service announced that the airport launch would take place in summer of 2011. NKR officials also insisted that the postponement was not related to the ongoing dispute with Azerbaijan.

Reactions

Shortly after the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Civil Aviation Department's statement announcing the May 9, 2011 opening date,

Arif Mammadov Arif Ahmad oglu Mammadov ( Azerbaijani: ''Arif Əhməd oğlu Məmmədov'') is an Azerbaijani engineer-economist, who serves as the Director of the State Civil Aviation Agency under the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport of Azerbaijan ...

, director of Azerbaijan's Civil Aviation Administration warned that according to

aviation law Aviation law is the branch of law that concerns flight, air travel, and associated legal and business concerns. Some of its area of concern overlaps that of admiralty law and, in many cases, aviation law is considered a matter of internationa ...

s, flights from Yerevan to

are not authorized and may be shot down. The NKR response came from

David Babayan David Klimi Babayan (, ''Davit' Klimi Babayan''; born 5 April 1973) is a politician who served as the advisor to the president of Artsakh from 17 January 2023 until the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. He previously served as th ...

, head of the central information department of the NKR President's office, who said that the

Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army The Artsakh Defence Army () was the defence force of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh. Established in 1992, it united previously disorganized defence units which were formed in the early 1990s. It was disbanded on 20 September 2023 under t ...

"will give an adequate response" if Azerbaijan attempts to shoot down an aircraft.Ghazinyan, Aris.
Air Message: Response to threats against the new airport in Stepanakert
." ''ArmeniaNow''. March 22, 2011.

President of Armenia The president of Armenia () is the head of state and the guarantor of independence and territorial integrity of Armenia elected to a single seven-year term by the National Assembly of Armenia. Under Armenia's parliamentary system, the president ...

Serzh Sargsyan Serzh Azati Sargsyan (, ; born 30 June 1954)Official biography of Serzh Sargsyan

condemned the threat to shoot down civilian aircraft, dismissing it as "nonsense". Sargsyan also said that he would be the first passenger of the inaugural Yerevan-Stepanakert flight. The Azerbaijani presidential administration condemned Sargsyan's statement as a provocation on the part of Armenia. A few days later, Elkhan Polukhov, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, declared that “Azerbaijan did not and will not use force against civil facilities.” The

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Assistant Secretary, Philip H. Gordon, as well as then ambassadors to Azerbaijan and Armenia,

Matthew Bryza Matthew James Bryza (born February 16, 1964) is a former United States diplomat. His last post in the United States foreign service was the United States Ambassador to Azerbaijan. Education Bryza graduated from Stanford University with a Bachel ...

and

Marie L. Yovanovitch Marie Louise "Masha" Yovanovitch (born November 11, 1958) is a Canadian-American former diplomat and retired Senior Foreign Service, senior member of the United States Foreign Service. She served in multiple United States Department of State, Sta ...

, respectively, characterized Azerbaijan's threat as "unacceptable"; and advised that issues related to the security of the airport should be solved before its opening. The

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...

Minsk Group, which mediates the conflict, reaffirmed that the operation of this airport could not be used to support any claim of a change in the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, and urged the sides to act in accordance with international law and consistent with current practice for flights over their territory. The United States ambassador to Azerbaijan

Richard Morningstar Richard L. Morningstar (born 1945) is an American diplomat. He was former United States Ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2012 to 2014. He was formerly Special Envoy of the United States Secretary of State for Eurasian Energy. Currently, Ambassador ...

stated in November 2012 he was "convinced that the functioning of the airport would not help the peace process." NK-parad-6-1200

Turkish Foreign Minister

Ahmet Davutoğlu Ahmet Davutoğlu (; born 26 February 1959) is a Turkish academic, politician and former diplomat who served as the List of Prime Ministers of Turkey, 26th Prime Minister of Turkey and Leader of the Justice and Development Party (Turkey), Justice ...

, who stated “that such provocative actions will not serve to promote the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict," and called on Armenia "to stop such provocative steps.” The

GUAM Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

's Secretary General Valeri Chechelashvili responded by stating that the airport was within the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan and can not operate without Azerbaijan's permission. On April 14, 2011, 23 members out of 324 from the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up of ...

(PACE) endorsed a declaration condemning "the construction by Armenia of an airport in the occupied Azerbaijani territories." The Turkish government condemned the efforts of Armenia to open the airport, and reiterated that it will close its air space to Armenia, if the opening goes ahead.

Airlines and destinations

It was expected that the airport would have regular flight services only to

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

, with state-owned carrier Artsakh Air. Also referred to as Artsakhavia, the state airline was created on January 26, 2011, and scheduled to operate from the airport beginning in 2017.Karabakh Gears Up For First Commercial Flights in Decades
Asbarez.com, 26 January 2011.Stepanakert L’aéroport rouvre en mai après 20 ans de fermeture
Nouvelles d'Armenie Magazine, 28 January 2011. (French)Will May 9th mark victory for Artsakh Air?
Avia Time It had a head office on the grounds of the airport. It intended to purchase three

Bombardier CRJ200 The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 (previously Canadair CRJ100 and CRJ200) are regional jets designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family. The ''Canadair Regional Jet'' (CRJ) pr ...

jets in 2011. Officials have only stated that a one-way air ticket to the Armenian capital would cost 16,000 drams (US$45). However, flights did not get started.

Notes

External links

Stepanakert Airport: How Armenians Hoodwinked Soviet Azerbaijan and Rebuilt Vital Transport Link
{{authority control Airports in Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh Defunct airports