Shooting down civilian planes is war crime

“The law passed by Azerbaijani parliament allows shooting down planes, including civilian ones, which have entered Azerbaijan’s airspace,” expert on Azerbaijan Sargis Asatrian said at the meeting with journalists today, when commenting on the law adopted by Azerbaijan, by which the airspace of Artsakh is considered as part of Azerbaijan’s airspace.

In his words, the absence of the international community’s response to the adoption of this law is astonishing. 

“Even in a military situation a state has no right to shoot down civilian planes, this is considered a war crime, a terrorist act”, Asatrian said.

The expert said that Azerbaijani petrodollars have managed to silence the international community, which is an alarming circumstance.

As regards the response of Armenian side to Azerbaijan’s threats, he said both Armenia and Artsakh have powerful air-defense systems and the Armenian side will not allow Azerbaijan to open fire on Armenian planes, including civilian ones.