Armenia rejects Azerbaijani charge of anti-government plot

Agence France Presse — English
August 5, 2005 Friday

YEREVAN Aug 5 — Armenia rejected Friday accusations from Azerbaijan
that its secret police were involved in an alleged plot to overthrow
the government in Baku.

“It is funny and bears no relation to reality,” Lieutenant-General
Gorik Akopyan, director of Armenia’s national security service,
told AFP.

He said the charge looked like an effort by security officials in
Baku to solve domestic political problems “with long-forgotten methods
used in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s.”

Azerbaijani prosecutors said Thursday that a youth opposition leader
had been arrested for planning to overthrow the government in a plot
allegedly hatched by a prominent US non-governmental organization,
Armenia’s secret police and local opposition groups.

The arrest of Ruslan Bashirli came after a member of the Yeni Fikir
youth movement that he leads informed authorities that Bashirli
had received 2,000 dollars (1,600 euros) in a secret meeting with
Armenian agents.

The arrest was denouced by opposition leaders as an attempt
by Azerbaijani authorities to smear their groups. It came amid
increasing government pressure on opposition political parties ahead
of parliamentary elections in November.