Regnum, Russia
Oct 8 2005
Armenia stands for establishing of budget monitoring mechanism to
limit warfare appetite of Baku
The Karabakh problem is a conflict between the people of Nagorno
Karabakh and Azerbaijan, and not a territorial dispute between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, Head of the OSCE Department at the MFA
Varuzhan Nersisyan said at a NATO Rose-Roth Seminar in Yerevan.
According to Nersisyan, even in the end of 20th century the UN
declined to recognize Nagorno Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan,
because it could pose danger to the people of Karabakh. Because of
this, liberation war was waged, during which people of Karabakh took
control over some of the nearest regions as a security measure. But
Azerbaijan still occupies some other Armenian territories, and that
should be a subject of peaceful negotiations, and nothing else,
stressed Nersisyan. `Karabakh is also a part of this conflict and
should participate in negotiations. The international community must
help people of Nagorno Karabakh Republic and find a solution between
two principles – peoples’ right for self-determination and
territorial unity of the state. This should be the main idea of OSCE
Minsk Group’, said Nersisyan. He also expressed his concerns about an
official statement made by Baku on the increase of war budget.
`Such statements can only lead to escalation of arms race in the
region’, noted Nersisyan. He also expressed his doubt whether an
increase of Azerbaijani war budget even to $600 million can help Baku
gain any advantages because of the corruption in Azerbaijani army. `I
think that the international community will formulate its opinion on
such statements. We are for the creation of budget monitoring
mechanism to limit warfare appetites.’
It should be noted, that Turkey did not participate in the seminar,
despite of the invitation, and Azerbaijan was presented unofficially
by chief of Azerbaijani Independent Research Center Leyla Aliyeva.