Zerkalo, Azerbaijan
Aug 10 2004

ANTI-ARMENIAN RHETORICAL `COMPETITION` CONTINUES IN BAKU

BAKU, 10.08.04. Azeri officials continue their barrage of threats,
demands and complaints directed at Armenia and NKR. Just in the last
week, spokesman for the Azeri Defense Ministry Ramiz Melikov promised
to do away with the Armenian state in `25 to 30 years` and
incorporate its territory into Azerbaijan. `This people has been a
nuisance for its neighbors and has no right to live in this region,`
Melikov said.

The Defense Ministry spokesman predicted that the `world Armenian
cabal` would face certain ruin. Not just yet, however, as the senior
official in the ruling New Azerbaijan Party Ali Ahmedov dismissed the
human rights criticism of the New York-based Human Rights Watch,
alleging that it was under Armenian influence.

Also last week, the Azeri government, which continually threatens to
unleash a new war in Karabakh, protested the holding of annual
maneuvers of the Karabakh Army. The Azeri Central Election
Commission, widely chastised for rubber-stamping the dynastic power
transfer in Azerbaijan last year, protested the holding of a
competitive municipal election in Karabakh. The state-controlled and
scandal-plagued Football Federation of Azerbaijan, in its turn
complained about the plans for holding a soccer competition in
Karabakh.

With aggressive rhetoric continuing unabated, a public opinion poll
conducted in 2003 and published last month found strong public
support for peace in both Azerbaijan and Armenia. 97 percent of
Armenians and 93 percent of Azeris surveyed said they desired peace,
while 74 percent of Armenians and 46 percent of Azeris want
inter-ethnic relations re-established. Significantly, there is
greater support for reconciliation among the Azeris displaced by the
war (80 percent) than the general population. The American University
in Washington, DC funded the study.