Baku Today, Azerbaijan
June 23 2004

Azeri Foreign Ministry Refutes Parliamentary Speaker’s Statement

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs refuted a statement by the
parliamentary speaker, Murtuz Aleskerov, that Armenian officers
arrived in Baku secretly, ANS reported on Wednesday.

The ministry said Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov had made a
statement about the Armenians’ expected visit three days before the
Baku-hosted planning conference for NATO’s `Cooperative Best
Effort-2004′ military exercises began on Tuesday.

The exercises are planned to be held in Azerbaijan in September.

The arrival of the Armenian officers, Colonel Murad Isakhanyan and
Senior Lieutenant Aram Hovhanesian, caused outcry among ordinary
Azeri citizens, with a group of activists from Karabakh Liberation
Organization breaking into the hall of Baku’s Europe hotel where the
planning conference was taking place. As a result, the work of the
conference stopped for about ten minutes.

Reinforced police forces eventually forced the protestors out of the
hotel, arresting 12 people, including the KLO chairman Akif Naghi.
Police said a criminal case has been filed into five of the detainees
who are accused of hooliganism.