AzerNews, Azerbaijan
July 7 2005
Armenia concerned over Azerbaijan’s military spending
Armenia will respond to Azerbaijan’s raising its military spending, a
high-ranking Armenian military official has said.
“Yerevan is concerned over Baku’s steps at increasing its military
power. We will respond adequately”, Armenian armed forces
headquarters chief Mikhael Harutyunian said commenting on President
Ilham Aliyev’s statement that Azerbaijan will raise its military
expenses to $300 million.
The Milli Majlis (parliament) has approved a supplement to the state
budget on increasing military expenses by 23% compared to 2004. The
funds will be mainly used to purchase machinery and aircraft.
Harutyunian said that ‘this is an internal matter of Azerbaijan’ but
said the move will lead to tensions.
“Armenia cannot allow Azerbaijan to sharply increase its military
potential. We are truly concerned over calls for settling the
Garabagh conflict by force sounding in this country.”
The Azerbaijani government has explained the increase in its military
spending by the recent transfer of Russian arms from Georgia to
Armenia.
The Armenian official stated that this weaponry will remain under
Russia’s control.
“We do not have and are not expecting an agreement on handing arms
over to Armenia. We are providing our armed forces with the needed
machinery and arms on our own within the permitted quotas.”
Harutyunian also claimed that Azerbaijan, which possesses more arms
than Armenia, is allegedly violating the Treaty on Conventional Arms
in Europe but accuses Armenia of breaching it.