'A slap in the face for Pashinyan': MP reacts to shooting targeting Syunik airport
MP Tigran Abrahamyan of the opposition Pativ Unem faction has reacted to a shooting targeting an airport in Kapan, a town in Armenia’s Syunik Province bordering Azerbaijan.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said on Friday that an unidentified person fired shots overnight from the territory of Azerbaijan at the airport, damaging its windows and roof.
“We call on the Azerbaijani authorities to conduct a proper investigation into the incident and to take measures to exclude the recurrence of such incidents,” the NSS said.
The shooting came hours after a plane carrying Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan landed in Kapan on Thursday. Regular flights from Yerevan to Kapan are scheduled to start next week.
“After the 44-day war, when Azerbaijani positions were deployed near Kapan, including 100 meters away from the Kapan airport, it was already obvious that the operation of the airport would depend on the whim of the Azerbaijanis,” Abrahamyan wrote on Facebook. “I don't think the NSS is naive enough to believe that it was an accident or an amateurish act.”
“The airport can be safely operated only when either the Azeri forces are pushed back from their positions or, in the worst case, when Armenia is ruled by such leaders that the Azeris will think a hundred times before taking such a step, and thus will not resort to any more provocations.
“Incidentally, it was also a slap in the face and humiliation for Pashinyan personally,” he added.