Tweet
ARMENIA 'BARRED' FROM CIS DEFENSE MEETING IN BAKU
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
May 30 2006
Armenia said on Tuesday that Azerbaijan has effectively prevented
it from participating in this week's meeting in Baku of high-ranking
defense officials from the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The one-day session of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers is
scheduled to open in the Azerbaijani capital on Wednesday. Official
Yerevan said last week that Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian will
not attend it, presumably because of the unresolved conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian Defense Ministry decided to send a
lower-level delegation to the gathering instead.
In a statement, the ministry said it has been informed by the
Moscow-based Secretariat of the increasingly moribund CIS structure
that the Azerbaijani authorities have refused to guarantee the
security of the Armenian participants. It condemned the move, accusing
Azerbaijan of failing to honor its international obligations.
"We expect an official response from the CIS Council of Defense
Ministers to the incident," added the statement.
A spokesman for the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry confirmed that Baku
is against Armenian participation in the meeting. "We came out against
the participation at the meeting of occupier-countries - Armenia -
which occupies 20 percent of territory long held by Azerbaijan,"
the Associated Press news agency quoted Ilgar Verdiyev as saying.
Many Azerbaijani government officials and civil society representatives
consider the physical presence of any Armenian citizens in their
country an affront to the memory of Azerbaijanis killed during the
1991-1994 war for Karabakh. The Azerbaijani government was driven
by such considerations when it refused to allow a group of Armenian
army officers to take part in a NATO-led military exercise that had
been due to take place on Azerbaijani soil in September 2004. NATO
officials responded by canceling the multinational drills.
In a separate development, President Jacques Chirac discussed the
Karabakh conflict with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliev in
Paris on Tuesday. "There is no alternative to a peaceful, negotiated
settlement," he told Aliev, according to the Associated Press.
The meeting came three days after Chirac reportedly sent a letter to
the Azerbaijani leader urging him not to miss a "unique opportunity"
to settle the conflict. He apparently referred to Aliev's upcoming
meeting in Bucharest with President Robert Kocharian. International
mediators hope the two men will reach a framework peace agreement on
Karabakh there.
Aliev was in Paris to attend a session of the NATO Parliamentary
Assembly. Addressing the Assembly on Tuesday, he called Karabakh
"a black hole of Europe."
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
May 30 2006
Armenia said on Tuesday that Azerbaijan has effectively prevented
it from participating in this week's meeting in Baku of high-ranking
defense officials from the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The one-day session of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers is
scheduled to open in the Azerbaijani capital on Wednesday. Official
Yerevan said last week that Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian will
not attend it, presumably because of the unresolved conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian Defense Ministry decided to send a
lower-level delegation to the gathering instead.
In a statement, the ministry said it has been informed by the
Moscow-based Secretariat of the increasingly moribund CIS structure
that the Azerbaijani authorities have refused to guarantee the
security of the Armenian participants. It condemned the move, accusing
Azerbaijan of failing to honor its international obligations.
"We expect an official response from the CIS Council of Defense
Ministers to the incident," added the statement.
A spokesman for the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry confirmed that Baku
is against Armenian participation in the meeting. "We came out against
the participation at the meeting of occupier-countries - Armenia -
which occupies 20 percent of territory long held by Azerbaijan,"
the Associated Press news agency quoted Ilgar Verdiyev as saying.
Many Azerbaijani government officials and civil society representatives
consider the physical presence of any Armenian citizens in their
country an affront to the memory of Azerbaijanis killed during the
1991-1994 war for Karabakh. The Azerbaijani government was driven
by such considerations when it refused to allow a group of Armenian
army officers to take part in a NATO-led military exercise that had
been due to take place on Azerbaijani soil in September 2004. NATO
officials responded by canceling the multinational drills.
In a separate development, President Jacques Chirac discussed the
Karabakh conflict with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliev in
Paris on Tuesday. "There is no alternative to a peaceful, negotiated
settlement," he told Aliev, according to the Associated Press.
The meeting came three days after Chirac reportedly sent a letter to
the Azerbaijani leader urging him not to miss a "unique opportunity"
to settle the conflict. He apparently referred to Aliev's upcoming
meeting in Bucharest with President Robert Kocharian. International
mediators hope the two men will reach a framework peace agreement on
Karabakh there.
Aliev was in Paris to attend a session of the NATO Parliamentary
Assembly. Addressing the Assembly on Tuesday, he called Karabakh
"a black hole of Europe."