Azerbaijan alarmed by Russian plans to rebase tanks

BAKU, May 23 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan on Monday voiced alarm over the
prospect of Russia moving some of its tanks currently based in Georgia
to Baku’s Caucasus neighbour and arch-foe Armenia.

Azerbaijan is suspicious of Russia’s military cooperation with
Armenia, which Baku accuses of being behind separatists who seized the
mainly Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in a conflict in
the 1990s that left thousands of people dead.

Russia’s armed forces chief of staff General Yuri Baluyevsky said last
week Moscow might have to move armour from its two military bases in
Georgia to Armenia to meet a withdrawal deadline still to be agreed in
talks with Tbilisi.

“Such developments will not serve the interests of peace and security
in the region and will create tensions … in the process of solving
the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the Azeri Foreign
Ministry said in a note to Moscow.

Georgia’s pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili wants Russia to
close two ex-Soviet military bases it controls in his Caucasus
republic, describing their presence as “occupation”.

Moscow says it needs several years to prepare infrastructure for the
troops and armour in Russia and to accumulate cash for the costly
operation.

A fresh round of talks on a withdrawal timetable started on Monday in
Tbilisi with Georgian officials saying their deadline for the pullout
to be completed was the end of 2008.

Baluyevsky said on Friday Russia can prepare a new base for the
withdrawn troops in four years, which appeared to be Moscow’s latest
deadline, but not for armour.

“That is why part of the armour and equipment may be moved to
Armenia,” he said.

Russian deliveries of armour to Armenia during the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict badly hit Moscow’s relations with Baku, which has said that
much of those weapons ended up in the hands of Karabakh separatists.

05/23/05 14:38 ET