WORLD INDEX SHOWS AZERBAIJAN BEHIND ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.03.2006 19:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “It must be exactly because of their huge military
budget that they have been working overtime at the border and
repeatedly violating the ceasefire. They must have extra bullets
to spare,” Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said when
asked by H2, the second Armenian Public TV Channel, to comment
on Aliyev’s statements extolling Azerbaijan’s increasing military
capability. “But let’s look at this from a global context. Today,
in the civilized world, peoples and states don’t compete over the
size of their military budget. That’s not what they take pride in
when they compare themselves with their neighbors. Today, the spheres
of competition are elsewhere. And in all those spheres, Armenia is
ahead of Azerbaijan. So far ahead that there is really no room to
compare. Beginning with the UN’s human development index, Armenia is
ahead of Azerbaijan. The international index that gauges Armenia’s
investment climate puts Armenia way ahead of Azerbaijan. They’re not
even a member of the WTO. There is no comparison in level of democratic
development, human rights protections or press freedoms. In indexes
that measure economic freedoms and development, and transparency and
gains in the battle against corruption, Armenia is disproportionately
better than Azerbaijan. Despite the fact that it’s how many years
now that Azerbaijan produces 400,000 barrels of oil, the per capita
income in Azerbaijan still hasn’t reached Armenia’s. It is better that
Azerbaijan tries to reach Armenia’s levels in these fields, than try
to compete and take pride in being ahead with its military capacity,”
the Armenian FM said.