Azeris expect ‘unbiased” approach from NATO on Armenian visit, says official

Ekspress, Baku
14 Jul 04

Text of Alakbar Raufoglu report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress on
14 July entitled “Baku has not given any guarantee to Armenian
officers” and subheaded “Araz Azimov: Yerevan wants to provoke us'”

Official Baku has not given any consent or guaranteed the Armenian
officers’ participation in NATO’s Cooperative Best Effort-2004
exercises, and at the same time, it considers that “if NATO is
interested in Yerevan’s attendance at this event, this can happen “.

Araz Azimov, deputy foreign minister and special presidential envoy on
the Karabakh settlement, said in a conversation with our correspondent
when commenting on the Armenian Defence Ministry statement that
Azerbaijan’s guarantee for the arrival of the Armenian officers in
Baku had been obtained.

Armenia is planning to send seven officers to the exercises in
Baku. The Armenian Defence Ministry is stating that if their officers
again meet with protests this time, Azerbaijan will bear the
responsibility for this. “They have given us a guarantee that the
officers in Baku will feel as if at home,” the ministry’s statement
read.

“There cannot be talk about any guarantee. The Armenians want to
provoke us,” Azimov said, adding that Azerbaijan “is expecting two to
three officers” from Armenia.

At the same time, he said that this number “will depend on the format
of the exercises, its scenario and the roles to be given to individual
countries. We hope that NATO headquarters will be unbiased in this
issue”.

Speaking about the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement, the deputy minister
said that “Armenia will find itself in a difficult situation if it
does not reconcile itself to the reality that has cropped up in the
conflict settlement”. He believes that official Yerevan is inflicting
damage on itself by delaying the peace process.

“At present, Armenia has lost over 2m of the population. They live in
foreign countries in a grave situation and this is a tragedy for
them,” the deputy foreign minister said, adding that the unresolved
conflict would further aggravate the Armenians’ living conditions.