Azerbaijan Announces Major Military Spending Boost

Agence France Presse
Nov 10 2004

ASTARA, Azerbaijan — Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said Nov. 9 that
defense spending in Azerbaijan would grow by nearly one third in 2005,
after rival Armenia unveiled plans to significantly boost its own
military budget.

“Our parliament is discussing next year’s budget, where spending
will grow by 25 to 30 percent, and this includes military spending,”
Aliyev told reporters.

Aliyev’s comments followed a proposal made Monday by Armenia’s
parliament to raise defense spending by 20 percent to $99 million
in 2005.

Aliyev gave no dollar figure for defense spending in Azerbaijan,
but a finance ministry source said that military spending in 2004
amounted to just under $150 million.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a border war, as the Soviet Union
broke up, that killed 35,000 people and displaced about one million
civilians. It ended with an uneasy ceasefire in 1994, with Armenian
forces in control of the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which under
international law is a part of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan still claims the territory and the two countries remain
locked in a state of war, with gunfire between the two sides exchanged
periodically.