AZERBAIJAN AIMS TO UNDERMINE ARMENIA’S SECURITY – MP

Noyan Tapan news agency
10 Sep 04

Yerevan, 10 September: Baku has been insisting persistently recently
that NATO limit the number of Armenian servicemen and prevent their
participation in the forthcoming military exercises due in Azerbaijan
as a regiment or platoon. This kind of behaviour of the Azerbaijani
authorities is aimed to stop Armenia’s integration into influential
international organizations such as NATO, the chairman of the Armenian
National Assembly’s standing commission for foreign relations and
a member of the board of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation –
Dashnaktsutyun, Armen Rustamyan, has told journalists.

“These actions have far-reaching goals and, coupled with Armenia’s
blockade, are part of the Azerbaijani technology aimed to weaken our
security system and settle the Karabakh problem in their favour,”
the MP said.

These steps of Baku, Armen Rustamyan said, also aim to maintain the
necessary level of anti-Armenian hysteria among its public in order
to preserve the Azerbaijanis’ ability to mobilize.

He said that taking into consideration consistency of this pre-planned
technology, Armenia should think of an appropriate mode of behaviour:
“One should not underestimate this technology and, hence, it is
necessary to think about possible counterstrikes.”

In this regard, Armen Rustamyan criticized the position of the
Armenian side at the latest NATO gathering in Baku when Armenian
military officers, who had been subjected to attacks, continued
their work in order not to aggravate the situation. “Nevertheless,
this incident should have been politicized, and this would have been
enough to raise doubts about whether Azerbaijan was ready to host
civilized meetings,” Rustamyan said.

Rustamyan said that it was necessary to demonstrate to the
international community this “reverse side” as well, when all the
attempts of the Armenian side to enter dialogue and “break the ice
in relations” come across Azerbaijan’s resistance.