The Azerbaijani Air Force Il-76 cargo plane (registration: 4K-78131) continues to fly to Turkey and back via Georgian airspace.

Recall that the Georgian government, on October 4, announced that it would ban the transfer of military cargo through its airspace to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict zone.

The plane did stop flying after this announcement but resumed flights in the last ten days of October.

As we have written, Azerbaijan's air communication, in particular with Turkey, Israel, Ukraine and Afghanistan, is provided by civil cargo haulers Silk Way Airlines and Silk Way West Airlines and the country’s national operator Azerbaijan Airlines.

It is clear that against the background of the flights of these three companies, the number of military cargo transfers is much less, but these flights are significant against the background of the statement of our northern neighbor Georgia, who, in fact, does not ban transit flights of a combat plane military of a country now at war.

Naturally, the Georgians may say that the warplane is carrying out humanitarian flights, but before making such a statement, any party must have clear facts to substantiate what it says in order to maintain political neutrality and not create unequal conditions between the parties.

For example, the fact that on October 30, the military 4K-78131 flew to Tekirdağ Airport not far from Istanbul (returned on the 31st of the month), which is used not only for civilian but also military purposes, raises doubts about what cargo the plane was actually carrying.

Suffice it to say that on October 29-31, the above-mentioned military Il-76 flew over Turkey four times via Georgian airspace.

It is also interesting that its flights, according to flightradar24.com, are numbered not with the relevant code of the Azerbaijani Air Force (AZAF), but with the J2 code given to the civil air operator Azerbaijan Airlines. Theoretically, this means that the military aircraft carries out flights on behalf of Azerbaijan Airlines.

Moreover, the same thing happened before and after the war, in the first days of hostilities. This, perhaps, can be considered an Azerbaijani trick, which can also be a very convenient excuse for the Georgians to allow the transit flights of a military plane.

Top photo: On September 25, two days before Baku launched hostilities, the Azerbaijani military IL-76 (4K-78131) was in Lvov, Ukraine. (jetphotos.com/Vasia Mechanic)