NATO-sponsored border security course held in Azerbaijan

Trend news agency
15 Mar 04

BAKU

Trend correspondent R. Abbasov: NATO participation in a settlement of
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict is in the interests of Azerbaijan,
Maj-Gen Omer Bayrakli, the military attache of the Turkish embassy in
Azerbaijan, said at a ceremony to open “Border Security Control
Course” in Baku on 15 March. The course was organized by the Turkish
Defence Ministry.

Despite the fact that Azerbaijan officially made no appeal for NATO
membership, it is intensively developing its relations with the
North-Atlantic Alliance, he said. “Among the CIS states, Azerbaijan is
a country which closely cooperates with NATO. Ex-president Heydar
Aliyev repeatedly said that NATO should be involved in solving
conflicts in the Caucasus,” Bayrakli said.

The head of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry department for
inspections, Mammad Beydullayev, said that the course is being held
from 15 to 19 March at the ministry’s training centre. Along with
military servicemen, representatives of the Foreign, National
Security, Interior Ministries, the State Customs Service and other
bodies will attend the course.

A lecturer and colonel of the Turkish army, Tuqay Bakkal, said that
the main goal of the course was to familiarize the Azerbaijani armed
forces with methods of preventing illegal border incursions, the
trafficking of drugs, weapons, human organs and so on. He noted that
the training was being conducted by the study centre of the
Partnership for Peace programme of the Turkish armed forces.

Up to now, 1,100 people have attended this course, including 320
Azerbaijani servicemen. Azerbaijan ranks second among 51 countries in
terms of the number of its participants. The course will also be held
in Ukraine, Romania, Albania, Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Moldova.