Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of violation

Newsday, NY
June 15 2005

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – Armenia on Wednesday accused neighboring
Azerbaijan of pursuing a weapons build-up in violation of the
Conventional Forces in Europe treaty.

Armenia’s chief of staff, Col. Gen. Mikael Arutyunyan, said that
Azerbaijan had more tanks and artillery than permitted.

“I would like officially to state that Azerbaijan has more
equipment and armaments than it should under the CFE treaty,” he told
reporters. The treaty regulates the deployment of military aircraft,
tanks and other heavy non-nuclear weapons around the continent.

The two Caucasus neighbors are locked in dispute over the enclave
of Nagorno-Karabakh. The mountainous region inside Azerbaijan has
been under the control of ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s,
following fighting that killed an estimated 30,000 people.

A cease-fire was signed in 1994, but the enclave’s final political
status has not been determined and shooting breaks out frequently
between the two sides, which face off across a demilitarized buffer
zone.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev on Wednesday boasted of his country’s
military muscle at a rally of the ruling party in the capital of Baku.

“Azerbaijan has recently got the upper hand in negotiations with
Armenia over the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he said.

“Military and economic potential are on our side. We will get our
lands back,” Aliev said.