Messenger.com.ge, Georgia
Aug 20 2004

Aliev threatens military force

According to the newspaper Zerkalo Nedeli, the Azeri President shares
the decisive ambition of Mikheil Saakashvili to restore the
territorial integrity of the country. Ilham Aliev expressed his
readiness to return Nagorno-Karabakh through military force if
necessary, if it cannot be restored through peaceful means.
Such a strong statement provoked a tour of the Caucasus by the
co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group Steven Mann, Yuri Merzliakov and
Anri Jakolen. Merzliakov stated that Karabakh and occupied lands are
different things, which was seen in Azerbaijan as an attempt of the
Minsk co-chairmen to force their variant of the peace agreement on
Baku, while maintaining Yerevan’s interests. “This time, the
interests of the United States, Russia and France – which form the
Minsk Group – coincided,” stated supporters of Heydar Aliev.
At first sight, such opinion sounds very strange: neither France nor
the United States were fierce supporters of the “young country which
is trying to achieve international recognition,” as the
Nagorno-Karabakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes itself.
Though, it will not impede the American strategists from testing the
Russian-Armenian tandem for solidity. The United States’ Congress has
adopted a decree which approves equal sums of military-financial
assistance for Azerbaijan and Armenia. While Baku would have hoped
earlier for around USD 8 million, Yerevan should have been satisfied
with only USD 2 million. Now both states will replenish their budget
with USD 5 million. The same amount of money is decided to be
allotted as humanitarian aid to Karabakh as well. Moreover,
congressmen supported an initiative to give Armenia USD 65 million
next year.
From: Baghdasarian