Azeri official sees Armenians’ possible visit as “act of sabotage”
Bilik Dunyasi news agency
27 Oct 04
Baku, 27 October: The wish of Armenian MPs to attend a NATO
Parliamentary Assembly seminar in Baku is nothing but another act of
sabotage. According to Azerbaijani Deputy Speaker Ziyafat Asgarov,
the Armenians want to come to Azerbaijan not because they would like
to attend the NATO seminar – they refused to attend the previous 57th
seminar in Macedonia. Also, Yerevan has repeatedly stated that it is
not interested in strengthening NATO’s positions in the Caucasus.
The NATO administration, in turn, understands this and intends to
improve relations with Yerevan.
According to Asgarov, despite this, it is impossible to prevent the
visit of Armenian MPs because a NATO Parliamentary Assembly rapporteur
on the South Caucasus is expected to point to the Armenian occupation
of Azerbaijani territories at the organization’s autumn session
in Italy. And if Azerbaijan blocks the arrival of Armenians again,
relations with NATO may acquire a negative undertone. As a result,
the report by the German rapporteur may be withdrawn from the session
agenda, which is not in Azerbaijan’s interests.