Armenian President’s Plan to be on First Flight to Stepanakert Remains Unchanged

The Armenian president’s statement remains in effect: RA President Serzh Sargsyan will be on the first flight to Stepanakert, said RA President press spokesperson Armen Arzumanyan, responding to a question by Epress.am as to whether news reports that the Yerevan-Stepanakert flight has been delayed might affect Serzh Sargsyan’s plans.

According to media reports, the first flight to inaugurate the newly rebuilt airport in the Nagorno-Karabakh capital of Stepanakert was to have taken place on May 9; however, a number of local news outlets later reported that the May 9 flight was cancelled (or in any case, delayed).

Note, Karabakh’s sole airport was closed in 1991 after a bloody war in which the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan. The republic is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians and exists today as a de-facto independent state under an uneasy ceasefire. OSCE-brokered efforts to resolve its status have so far been unsuccessful.