Azerbaijan to establish border control with Armenia, official says

Interfax news agency, Moscow
23 Jun 05

BAKU

Azerbaijan intends to establish border control with Armenia, a country
it is at war with, the deputy commander of the Azerbaijani State
Border Service (SBS), Ilham Mehdiyev, has told an international
seminar on threats to border security in the South Caucasus. The
seminar opened in Baku today with support from NATO.

“Due to the military conflict with Armenia, we have been unable to
create proper border infrastructure in this direction, which is the
longest (1,007 km) section of our state border,” Mehdiyev said.

“We have already started preliminary work on creating the logistics
for establishing control over this section of the state border. I have
to say that this is an enormous project and, naturally, it will be
difficult to implement it without international support,” he said.

Mehdiyev also said that Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani
territories was adversely affecting regional development. He said a
threat was being posed to the East-West transport corridor and to the
implementation of international projects to produce and transport
Caspian hydrocarbons.

The deputy commander of the SBS also pointed to the difficult
situation on the southern border, especially in fighting illegal
migration and drug trafficking on the border with Iran.

“The situation in the north is also difficult. The tense
public-political situation in Chechnya and Dagestan affects the
security of the Azerbaijani-Russian section of the border. As is the
case with the Azerbaijani-Iranian border, smuggling and illegal
migration are still the most frequent types of violations on the
northern and northwestern sections,” he said.

[Passage omitted: importance of cooperation within the framework of
the regional alliance of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova]