Pashinyan’s plane flies through Azerbaijani airspace, in an apparent first

In an apparent first, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s plane crossed through Azerbaijani airspace while flying abroad and returning back to the country, Pashinyan’s spokesperson Nazeli Baghdasaryan has said. Baku has long had an unofficial ban on Armenian planes using its airspace.

Pashinyan’s plane crossed through Azerbaijani airspace on 30 August as he was leaving Armenia and then again on 6 September as he was returning from a trip abroad.

‘After the establishment of peace in Washington on 8 August, the relevant bodies of Armenia requested air passage from Azerbaijan for the plane of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia and received a positive response. We consider this fact as a practical step towards unblocking [transit links] in the region, promoting the peace agenda, and creating an atmosphere of mutual trust’, Baghdasaryan said.

‘Azerbaijani aircraft have been using Armenian airspace to maintain communication between the main part of Azerbaijan and [its exclave of Nakhchivan] for a long time’, she added.

Recent months have seen unprecedented steps toward peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, culminating in the Washington meeting between Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and US President Donald Trump that Baghdasaryan referenced.

At the meeting, the three leaders initialled, but did not officially sign, a peace agreement, as well as establishing a project known as the Trump Route to connect mainland Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan, through Armenian territory.

The project will be managed by a yet-unnamed US company.