Azerbaijan Raises 2005 Defense Spending: Aliyev
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BAKU

Agence France Presse
Dec 8 2004

Azerbaijan’s defense spending will increase by 30 percent next year
and may eventually grow by 200 percent, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
said late Dec. 7, linking the hike to his country’s conflict with
neighboring Armenia.

“Next year, defense spending will be increased to $250 million (186
million euros), which is 30 percent more than in 2004,” Aliyev told
a cabinet meeting.

“And in the future, we will continue to increase defense spending. As
long as our land is occupied,” he added, in a reference to the disputed
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is now under Armenian control.

“It will be (raised) by 50 percent, by 100 percent, by 200 percent,
and more,” Aliyev said.

Armenian and Azeri forces have been locked in a tense stand-off
since fighting a war in the early 1990s over the disputed territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The two sides are observing a ceasefire, but cross-border shootouts
are a frequent occurrence.

Armenian troops last month shot dead an Azeri army officer along the
volatile border that separates the two warring former Soviet republics,
bringing the Azeri death toll to close to a dozen soldiers since the
start of the year.

Years of negotiations backed by the so-called Minsk group — chaired by
France, Russia and the United States and mandated by the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe — have failed to resolve
the conflict, and today no transport or communication lines link
the neighbors.

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