Agence France Presse — English
June 25, 2005 Saturday 6:29 PM GMT

Petro-dollars funding big military build up in Azerbaijan: Aliyev

BAKU June 25

Azerbaijan is using revenue from record-high oil prices to fund a
massive increase in military spending, President Ilham Aliyev said
Saturday, warning that the army would be prepared to reconquer the
ethnic-Armenian separatist region of Nagorno Karabakh.

Azerbaijan will spend 300 million dollars (248 million euros) on its
armed forces in 2005, a 70 percent increase over last year, the Azeri
leader said at a ceremony in a military academy.

“The adversary must know that the Azerbaijani army can mobilize at
any moment and liberate the occupied territories,” Aliyev said.
“Spending on the country’s defense force will grow continuously.”

In May, Azerbaijan inaugurated a US-backed pipeline, which will
deliver oil from Caspian Sea oil fields to the Mediterranean and is
expected to generate as much as 160 billion dollars for the country
over the next 30 years.

Analysts say Baku may try to use the money to finance an attempt to
restore control over Nagorno Karabakh.

Armenian forces took control of the mountainous area and seven other
regions in a bitter war in the early 1990s, but Azerbaijan has
refused to give up its claim to the territory.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress