NATO Cancels Military Exercise in Azerbaijan

VOA News
13 Sep 2004, 15:13 UTC

The tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia have forced NATO to cancel
military exercises set to begin Monday. A NATO spokesman in Brussels
said the maneuvers, part of the alliance’s Partnership for Peace
program, were called off because host country Azerbaijan refused to
allow Armenian troops on its territory.

NATO said the government in Baku breached one of the fundamental
tenets of the program, the inclusion of all allies and partners
wishing to participate.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds over Nagorno-Karabakh, an
ethnic Armenian enclave that declared independence from Azerbaijan
in 1988. A six-year conflict over the area claimed some 35,000 lives.