Azerbaijanis in Central Asia complain about the lack of direct flights

Baku/20.09.21/Turan: The lack of direct flights between Azerbaijan and the countries of Central Asia has become a problem for our fellow citizens in these republics.

Having addressed a letter to the editorial office of Turan, Eyvaz Khalidov, who lives in Kazakhstan, said that since March 2020, Azerbaijanis in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, representing a huge diaspora, cannot directly reach Azerbaijan.

“I myself represent the diaspora in Kazakhstan. There are about 200 thousand Azerbaijanis in this country, one embassy in Nur-Sultan, one consulate general in Aktau and one diplomatic mission in Almaty. There was a period when there were direct flights from Baku to four cities of Kazakhstan - Atyrau, Aktau, Almaty and Nur-Sultan, ”he wrote.

At the same time, Khalidov noted that at the moment there are flights from Kazakhstan to eight countries of the former USSR, including two neighboring countries of the South Caucasus, and from Azerbaijan there is not a single flight to the countries of Central Asia.

Commenting on this problem to Turan, a source in the government noted that flights were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The operational headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers, depending on the epidemiological situation, makes a decision on the resumption of flights to a particular country.

So far, the resumption of direct flights with the countries of Central Asia is not planned, therefore, it is possible to fly there only through third countries.

Before the pandemic between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, direct flights were carried out by the Azerbaijani company AZAL and the Kazakhstani Air Astana and SCAT.

On September 10 in Baku at a regular meeting of the Kazakh-Azerbaijani Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation, representatives of Kazakhstan proposed Azerbaijan to resume direct flights.

Before the pandemic, an Uzbek airline operated direct flights from Uzbekistan to Azerbaijan. In early August, it was reported that the Uzbek authorities offered Azerbaijan to resume direct flights.

In early September, the head of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry received the new ambassador of Kyrgyzstan, Kairat Osmonaliyev, with whom the issue of resuming direct flights was also discussed.

Negotiations were held with Turkmenistan, with which Azerbaijan did not have air connections until 2019, to start flights, but they were terminated due to the pandemic. –71D-