NATO cancels Azeri war games as Armenian officers refused entry – agency

Mediamax news agency
13 Sep 04

Yerevan, 13 September: The supreme allied commander, Europe, US Gen
James Jones, today decided to cancel the Cooperative Best Effort –
2004 exercises because of the refusal to allow Armenian military
officers entry to Baku, a representative of the headquarters of the
North Atlantic alliance in Brussels has said in a telephone interview
with Mediamax. The exercises were due to start in Baku within the
framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme.

The NATO representative stressed that Gen Jones had decided to cancel
the exercises “because of Azerbaijan’s refusal to issue permission to
Armenian officers, the fundamental principle of conducting exercises
within the framework of the Partnership for Peace programme was
breached and, in accordance with this principle, the exercises have to
be open to all partner countries”. “NATO regrets that this principle
was breached in the organization of the exercises in Azerbaijan,”
the NATO representative told Mediamax.

[Passage omitted: background information]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress