President: Azerbaijan’s patience on Nagorno-Karabakh limited

.c The Associated Press

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev said Friday
that the ex-Soviet nation still hopes to settle the long-running
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through talks, but added that its patience
was running out and called for a military buildup.

“Our patience has limits,” Aliev said in a speech to youth
organizations in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku. “I am absolutely
convinced that if we want to get our lands back on the basis of a fair
peace, we need to pay big attention to building up our military.”

Aliev previously has made similar statements while campaigning for the
ruling New Azerbaijan party in the run-up to the Nov. 6 parliamentary
elections. The statements are an apparent response to the
opposition’s claim that a change in government is necessary to win
back control over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed enclave that has been
under the control of Armenian separatists since the early 1990s.

Oil-rich Azerbaijan budgeted over US$300 million (euro248 million) for
defense this year and is set to double its defense spending next
year. In comparison, Armenia’s defense budget for next year is
equivalent to US$150 million (euro124 million).

Aliev on Friday pledged to make Azerbaijan’s defense budget equivalent
to the entire Armenian state budget, adding that it will help regain
control over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains high more than a decade
after a 1994 cease-fire ended a six-year war that left
Nagorno-Karabakh in Armenian hands. Some 30,000 people were killed and
1 million displaced. The lack of a resolution of the enclave’s status
has impeded economic development in the region.

10/14/05 15:08 EDT