Azeri official downplays Karabakh polls, war games

Ekspress, Baku
10 Aug 04

Text of Alakbar Raufoglu report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress on
10 August headlined “The Armenians are deceiving themselves”

“By conducting the so-called local government elections and military
exercises in Nagornyy Karabakh, the Armenian separatists are trying to
comfort themselves and this cannot affect the settlement process in
any way,” the head of the foreign relations department of the
Azerbaijani presidential administration, Novruz Mammadov, has told
Express.

“Azerbaijan’s economic and political potential is great and our army
is getting stronger. Concerned about that, the Armenians are trying to
present themselves as being powerful in order to find out what
Azerbaijan’s reaction will be. They organize such activities in order
to comfort themselves. But they are only deceiving themselves. In
other words, they are trying to say that we are there and this is what
we can do,” Mammadov said.

The official added that the OSCE and other prominent international
organizations have stated that they do not recognize the Karabakh
elections.

“Everyone knows that the separatists’ actions are illegal. As for the
military exercises, they don’t even have an army to conduct them. This
is all empty talk,” he said.

Meanwhile, a diplomatic source has told Express that more than 500
troops and retired officers from Armenia were involved in the
large-scale military exercises near Azerbaijan’s Agdam District. The
exercises are held mainly in the village of Xidirli and in Agdam
itself. The Armenians have established a firing range there and are
using anti-aircraft guns and armoured vehicles in the exercises.