The Kapan airport reportedly came under fire on Friday less than 24 hours after a plane carrying Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian landed there. According to Armenia’s state border guard service, three gunshots were fired from Azerbaijani army positions overlooking the facility, damaging its roof and one of the windows.
Another shooting incident was reported on Saturday. Karen Balian, an aide to the governor of Armenia’s Syunik province, of which Kapan is the capital, said on Monday that airport employees heard gunfire several minutes after a plane carrying other senior officials from Yerevan touched down on the runway.
Balian accused Azerbaijan of trying to disrupt the first post-Soviet flight service between Yerevan and Kapan launched by the NovAir airline. While acknowledging apparent security risks involved, he urged travellers to fly to and from Kapan.
“We must not succumb to these provocations and must carry out the regular flights which are very important for Syunik,” the official told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The inaugural 50-minute flights went ahead as planned on Monday morning, with NovAir using small L-410 aircraft capable of carrying up to 17 passengers.
A spokeswoman for the Armenian government’s Civil Aviation Committee told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that there were only two passengers on each of those flights. They included Syunik Governor Robert Ghukasian’s deputy and adviser, according to the provincial administration.
The private carrier plans to carry out such flights twice a week.