THE KARABAKH LIBERATION ORGANIZATION PROTESTS THE VISIT OF ARMENIAN OFFICERS

CENTRAL ASIA – CAUCASUS ANALYST
Wednesday / June 30, 2004

By Fariz Ismailzade

This week police and demonstrators once again clashed in the streets of
Baku. The cause of these clashes was the arrival of two Armenian
officers in Baku to participate in a NATO conference. Several dozens of
members of the Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO) stormed the
“Europe” hotel, where the conference was taking place and attempted to
psychically remove the Armenian officers from there.

This week police and demonstrators once again clashed in the streets of
Baku. The cause of these clashes was the arrival of two Armenian
officers in Baku to participate in a NATO conference. Several dozens of
members of the Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO) stormed the
“Europe” hotel, where the conference was taking place and attempted to
psychically remove the Armenian officers from there.

“These officers represent the occupational army. Their hands are soaked
in blood. They have raped our women and killed our children. There is no
place for them in Baku,” exclaimed Akif Nagi, the chairman of the KLO.
Other demonstrators carried banners and posters and demanded that the
Armenian officers immediately leave the country. Several of them even
succeeded at entering the conference hall way and breaking windows
before being forcefully removed by security. Police subsequently
intervened and arrested several protestors, including Akif Nagi.

The Karabakh Liberation Organization unites mainly the families of the
war victims and displaced people from Karabakh. In the past, it has
protested against the planned arrival of Armenian military servicemen to
Baku to participate in NATO events, but this was the first case when the
Armenian officers actually did come. In previous times, the visits were
cancelled. The KLO belongs to the opposition in domestic politics and in
the last presidential elections in October 2003, it supported the
candidacy of Musavat Party chairman Isa Gambar.

The majority of local residents in Baku also voiced their criticism at
the arrival of the Armenian officers. Many respondents believed that the
representatives of the enemy’s army should not be allowed in Baku. “What
will Armenians think? They will think that it was OK to occupy our land
and now to come to the capital city of Azerbaijan, sit here, eat here
and laugh at us! What a shame!” said an old man to a local media outlet,
which widely covered the event. Even deputies in the Parliament debated
the issue and expressed their anger at the situation.

Meanwhile, the official Azerbaijani government took a constructive
approach to this issue and decided to allow the Armenian officers to
participate in the conference. “The relations between Azerbaijan and
NATO should not become the hostage of our relations with Armenia,” said
deputy foreign minister Araz Azimov. He also added that reacting
emotionally to these kinds of situations was the not best thing to do.
“We need to be more pragmatic than this.”

Bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and NATO has been indeed
increasing since Azerbaijan joined the Partnership for Peace Program of
NATO in 1994. Lately, Azerbaijan has sent peacekeeping troops to the
Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan and the recently signed an Individual
Partnership Program between Baku and NATO will further increase the
cooperation. That is why it was important for the Azerbaijani Government
to host this NATO conference at the highest level.

The visiting Armenian officers were tightly protected by security forces
during their stay. During the debates in the Azerbaijani Parliament it
was revealed that they did not even receive a visa from the Azerbaijani
embassy in Georgia, as was announced earlier.

The majority of analysts in Azerbaijan believe that the KLO protest was
not a sporadic event but rather the logical consequence of the
deadlocked negotiations in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process for the
past 10 years. The Azerbaijani society has been getting increasingly
frustrated with the stalemate and thus becoming more supportive of a
military solution to the conflict. Many people do not believe that the
international negotiations will produce any results and that the
occupied lands will be returned. Thus, the internal hostility towards
Armenia increases year by year. Several months ago, another indicator of
this growing hostility took place in Budapest, where an Azerbaijani
officer presumably (the court case is ongoing) murdered his Armenian
colleague. These are simply symptoms of Azerbaijani society’s increasing
impatience towards the Karabakh problem.

Meanwhile, dozens of Parliamentarians in Baku signed a petition calling
for the release of the arrested members of KLO, and the ANS TV has
voiced concerns at the brutality of the police forces while dispersing
the crowd. Even the Azerbaijani Human Rights Ombudsman Elmira
Suleymanova asked for the release of the arrested demonstrators.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress