Associated Press Worldstream
June 22, 2004 Tuesday
Protesters break in to a NATO forum attended by Armenian defense
officials
BAKU, Azerbaijan
Several protesters broke into a NATO forum on Tuesday attended by
Armenian defense officials, and called on Azerbaijan to stop
negotiations with Armenia, highlighting tensions over
Nagorno-Karabakh – a territory disputed by both countries.
Several activists of the Organization of Karabakh’s Freedom pushed
through police cordons, broke glass doors and stormed into a
conference hall in Baku’s Europe hotel which hosted the forum. The
conference of 21 NATO member states and partners was being held ahead
of NATO’s “Cooperative Best Effort-2004” to be held in Azerbaijan.
Two Armenian officers were among those attending the conference.
Outside the hotel, about 30 protesters held banners “NATO without
Armenians” and “Shame on those who negotiate with Armenians!” More
protesters were cordoned off by police.
Protesters and hotel security guards suffered minor injuries in the
incident in the hotel and the meeting resumed in several minutes.
Eight people were detained by police.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are at odds over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
which Armenian forces seized from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. A
1994 cease-fire has largely held, but no final settlement has been
reached. Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan are NATO members, but both
former Soviet republics participate in NATO’s Partnership for Peace
program.