Azeri paper derides decision to allow Armenian military experts to visit Baku

Zerkalo, Baku
17 Sep 04

Text of Farid report by Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo on 17 September
headlined “Armenians still to come to Baku” and subheaded “Though this
time, they will be wearing plain clothes”

The participation of Armenian representatives in the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly’s [PA] Rose-Roth seminar due in Baku on 26-28
November is still on the agenda, the head of the Azerbaijani
delegation to the NATO PA and deputy speaker of the Azerbaijani
parliament, Ziyafat Asgarov, has told Trend news agency.

He said Armenian specialists are not military officers and since they
are civilian experts, their visit to Baku will not cause serious
protests in Baku.

The seminar, which was postponed in 2003, will be held at Hyatt Park
Hotel which the NATO PA chose itself during a visit to Baku (Trend).

Only one thing remains unclear: who is trying to fool who? Either
Ziyafat Asgarov, who is trying to convince the nation that the
Armenians, who have now slipped into plain clothes, will meet less
resistance in Azerbaijan or our neighbours have decided to set foot on
our soil at all costs.

And while the wish of the Armenians is quite understandable, the
position of the Azerbaijani authorities in this issue is causing
nothing but astonishment. Why did they raise all this hue and cry
over the visit by Armenian officers to Baku and eventually damage
relations with NATO, if only two months later Armenians are to appear
in Baku anyway?

Even stranger is the fact that this has been announced by the deputy
speaker of the parliament, a body whose representatives were almost
kissing each other in jubilation after representatives of the Armenian
military establishment were barred from coming to Azerbaijan.

Whatever the outcome, Azerbaijan has made a rather precipitous
decision, especially if we take into account Asgarov’s statement.