Azeri government protests at Armenians’ participation in NATO’s Baku exercises

Bilik Dunyasi news agency
2 Sep 04

Baku, 2 September: The Azerbaijani government has lodged its protest
with NATO against the participation of Armenian officers in the
NATO field exercises “Cooperative Best Effort-2004” due in Baku from
13 to 26 September, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
has said. However, he stressed that NATO has the right to determine
participants in these exercises.

The head of the press service of the [Azerbaijani] Defence Ministry,
Col Ramiz Malikov, confirmed that official Baku’s protest had been
forwarded to the leadership of the North Atlantic alliance. But
Malikov did not rule out the participation of two Armenian officers
in the exercises.