Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Azerbaijani president refuses to attend CIS summit alongside Armenia

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Azerbaijani president refuses to attend CIS summit alongside Armenia

    Azerbaijani president refuses to attend CIS summit alongside Armenian leader

    The Associated Press
    05/02/05 11:58 EDT

    BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) - Azerbaijan's president said Monday he would
    not participate in an upcoming summit of former Soviet republics
    because of the planned attendance of his Armenian counterpart.

    Ilham Aliev said in a statement that it was inappropriate for
    Azerbaijani officials to attend the May 8 summit of Commonwealth
    of Independent States summit in Moscow given the hostile state of
    relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

    The statement from the presidential press service also noted that
    many Azerbaijanis consider May 8 a day of mourning, due to a key
    battle during the six-year war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
    the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    The statement said that Aliev, however, would attend the May 9
    ceremonies in Moscow marking the 60th anniversary of Allied victory
    over Nazi Germany.

    Nagorno-Karabakh - a mountainous region inside Azerbaijan - has been
    under the control of ethnic Armenians since the fighting, which killed
    an estimated 30,000 people and drove a million from their homes before
    a cease-fire was signed in 1994.

    The enclave's political status has not been determined, and shooting
    breaks out frequently between the two sides across a demilitarized
    buffer zone. Both sides routinely take prisoners and exchange them
    via the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups.

    The Commonwealth of Independent States is a loose grouping of former
    Soviet republics.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X