Assa-Irada, Azerbaijna
Nov 30 2004

Azerbaijan not to allow cargo transit to Armenia – Azeri official

Hundreds of transit cargo trains have been withheld on the
Azerbaijani-Georgian border for three days. The contents of 309
carriages are suspected to have been en route to Armenia.
Commenting on the matter, First Deputy Prime Minister Abbas Abbasov
said that Azerbaijan can detain all consignments coming from other
countries en route to Georgia through its territory, if they are
further delivered to Armenia. He said that to prevent the transit
delivery of goods to Armenia, he met with Georgian President, Prime
Minister and Secretary of the Security Council last week and
officially informed them of such instances.
During the meetings, Abbasov urged the Georgian government to thwart
such cases and warned of detention of all kind of cargoes to be
dispatched to Georgia by Azerbaijan in order to protect the country’s
national interests.
Azerbaijan and Georgia have signed inter-governmental agreements on
transportation of transit and export consignments through the
former’s territory provided that they are not further passed on to
Armenia, Abbasov said.
Abbasov said, however, that there have been instances of cargo being
delivered to Armenia through Azerbaijan’s territory, in particular,
transit of oil products and fuel.
The First Deputy Prime Minister also underlined that the freight
trains, the destinations of which are determined, are allowed to
enter Georgia.
`Not a gram of fuel will be dispatched to aggressor Armenia, which
has occupied 20% of Azerbaijan’s territory, so that it could launch
new military attacks on our country,’ Abbasov said.
The spokesman for the Georgian Railway Office Stepnadze said the
Georgian side is not aware of any cargo transportation to Armenia.
`As far as we know, the consignments coming from Azerbaijan are not
transported to Armenia via Georgia.’
He said that according to the existing bilateral agreements, the
consignments may not be transported to a third country contradicting
the interests of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Stepnadze indicated that the
detention of railway carriages on the border will not affect
bilateral relations.
`There are no problems between the two countries and Azerbaijan
reserves the right to inspect any consignment.’