NATO secretary-general visits Azerbaijan

ANS Radio, Baku
5 Nov 04

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has begun an official
visit to Baku, Azerbaijani radio station ANS has reported. It is the
secretary-general’s first visit since NATO cancelled military
exercises in Azerbaijan in September, because Armenian officers were
denied entry to Baku.

Asked about a forthcoming NATO seminar in Baku, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
said that Armenian MPs should be able to attend the meeting, ANS
reported. “The holding of the Rose-Roth seminar is outside the NATO
secretary-general’s sphere,” Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said. “If the issue
was within the purview of the NATO secretary-general, as previously my
position would not change. My position is that the attendance of any
guests is admissible at this kind of seminar.”

In the morning of 5 November Jaap de Hoop Scheffer paid his respects
at the grave of former Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev and
Martyrs’ Avenue, where those killed by Soviet troops in 1990 and some
of the Karabakh war dead are buried. The NATO secretary-general also
met students and professors at Baku State University. Later in the day
he is to hold talks with Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and
Defence Minister Safar Abiyev and to meet President Ilham Aliyev.