Armenia to take part in Baku-hosted NATO exercises – minister

Mediamax news agency
31 Aug 04

Yerevan, 31 August: The newly-appointed German ambassador to Armenia,
Heike-Renate Peitsch, asked Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan
at a meeting today about Armenian servicemen’s participation in
the Cooperative Best Effort-04 exercises which will be held in Baku
in September within the framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace
programme.

The government press service quoted Andranik Markaryan as saying that
Armenia had announced that it wishes and is ready to take part in the
exercises but that some political forces in Azerbaijan were attempting
to hinder this. The prime minister said that reports from Azerbaijan
suggested that the Azerbaijani authorities were undertaking measures to
bring the offenders to book [presumably, reference to prison sentences
to six members of the Karabakh Liberation Organization handed down
by an Azeri court on 30 August].

“This testifies that Azerbaijan is interested in participation of the
Armenian side in the Cooperative Best Effort-04 exercises,” Andranik
Markaryan said.