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  • A Shortage Of Ministers

    A SHORTAGE OF MINISTERS
    by Irada Alekperova, Baku; Petr Iskenderov

    Source: Vremya Novostei, May 31, 2006, p. 2
    Agency WPS
    What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
    May 31, 2006 Wednesday

    Not all CIS defense ministers are attending the Baku meeting;
    The defense ministers of Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus,
    Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and representatives
    of the CIS executive committee, will attend a meeting in Azerbaijan
    today. Representatives of Georgia and Armenia will not attend.

    A scheduled meeting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers will
    be held in Baku today. The defense ministers of Azerbaijan, Russia,
    Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,
    and representatives of the CIS executive committee, will attend the
    summit. Representatives of Georgia and Armenia will not attend. The
    Ukrainian delegation will be present as an observer.

    The agenda includes around 20 issues, including the program of
    development of military cooperation within the framework of the CIS
    until 2010. The ministers also hope to pass the agenda of the Council
    of defense ministers for 2007, discuss the development of the joint
    air defense system, the creation of the joint communications system
    and the performance of the collective peacekeeping contingent in the
    zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. Russian Defense Minister
    Sergei Ivanov will chair the meeting. He arrived in Baku yesterday
    and held negotiations with Azeri Defense Minister Safar Abiyev.

    The newspaper reports that the ministers plan to discuss the Karabakh
    problem. They will have to do this without Armenia. The press service
    of the Azeri Defense Ministry stated that Baku considers Armenian
    servicemen as persona non grata, which is why the republic did not
    sent the invitation to Yerevan.

    Armenia explained the situation as follows. Press secretary Seiran
    Shakhsuvaryan of the Defense Ministry said that Azerbaijan did not
    provide security guarantees. Yerevan awaits the Council's official
    reaction to Azerbaijan's failure to ensure the security of participants
    in the international conference on its territory.

    Azeri press secretary Ilgar Verdiyev said that such accusations are
    unfounded. He stated: "We oppose Armenia's participation in the summit
    because it seized 20% of Azerbaijan's territory."

    Political analyst Elkhan Kuliyev said that the absence of the Armenian
    representative was predicted beforehand. Firstly, society's reaction
    to such contacts is very painful. The Organization for Liberation of
    Karabakh has repeatedly organized actions of protest against Armenian
    representatives' visits to Baku. Elkhan Kuliyev stated that Baku
    prefers to seek the solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem through
    the Minsk OSCE group, since negotiations between the presidents of
    Azerbaijan and Armenia held in Paris failed.

    The absence of the Armenian defense minister is not the only problem.

    Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili will not attend the
    meeting either. Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko
    arrived Baku with "special opinion." He said: "Ukraine's status is
    an observer. We will not sign documents passed at the meeting."

    Hrytsenko arrives in Baku in the wake of a scandal over an unauthorized
    visit to the Crimea by NATO representatives. He had to apologize on
    television for concealing information that the US cargo ship which
    visited Feodosia on May 27 carried weapons.
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