Azerbaijan to end cargo transit to Armenia – president

Interfax
Dec 20 2004

Baku. (Interfax) – Baku intends to put an end to cargo transit across
Azerbaijan and Georgia to Armenia, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
told reporters on Friday.

“All the problems on the Azerbaijani – Georgian border will disappear
when it is clear that not a gram of cargo will reach Armenia,” he said.

The Azerbaijani State-run Railroad on December 8 suspended the crossing
of the Azerbaijani – Georgian border by cargo when it turned out that
some of the cars were to move on to Azerbaijan.

Baku believes that economic cooperation with Armenia is impossible
as long as that country occupies Azerbaijani land.

Georgians sympathize with Baku’s position, Aliyev said.

“There are certain groups and we know what they are who want
Azerbaijani – Georgian relations to deteriorate. Unfortunately, some
of these people are inside Azerbaijan but most of them are outside
the country,” he said.

Baku’s official view is that Armenia seized Nagorno-Karabakh and
seven adjacent districts of Azerbaijan in a bloody conflict in 1990s.