A SHORTAGE OF MINISTERS
by Irada Alekperova, Baku; Petr Iskenderov
Source: Vremya Novostei, May 31, 2006, p. 2
Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
May 31, 2006 Wednesday
Not all CIS defense ministers are attending the Baku meeting;
The defense ministers of Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and representatives
of the CIS executive committee, will attend a meeting in Azerbaijan
today. Representatives of Georgia and Armenia will not attend.
A scheduled meeting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers will
be held in Baku today. The defense ministers of Azerbaijan, Russia,
Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,
and representatives of the CIS executive committee, will attend the
summit. Representatives of Georgia and Armenia will not attend. The
Ukrainian delegation will be present as an observer.
The agenda includes around 20 issues, including the program of
development of military cooperation within the framework of the CIS
until 2010. The ministers also hope to pass the agenda of the Council
of defense ministers for 2007, discuss the development of the joint
air defense system, the creation of the joint communications system
and the performance of the collective peacekeeping contingent in the
zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. Russian Defense Minister
Sergei Ivanov will chair the meeting. He arrived in Baku yesterday
and held negotiations with Azeri Defense Minister Safar Abiyev.
The newspaper reports that the ministers plan to discuss the Karabakh
problem. They will have to do this without Armenia. The press service
of the Azeri Defense Ministry stated that Baku considers Armenian
servicemen as persona non grata, which is why the republic did not
sent the invitation to Yerevan.
Armenia explained the situation as follows. Press secretary Seiran
Shakhsuvaryan of the Defense Ministry said that Azerbaijan did not
provide security guarantees. Yerevan awaits the Council’s official
reaction to Azerbaijan’s failure to ensure the security of participants
in the international conference on its territory.
Azeri press secretary Ilgar Verdiyev said that such accusations are
unfounded. He stated: “We oppose Armenia’s participation in the summit
because it seized 20% of Azerbaijan’s territory.”
Political analyst Elkhan Kuliyev said that the absence of the Armenian
representative was predicted beforehand. Firstly, society’s reaction
to such contacts is very painful. The Organization for Liberation of
Karabakh has repeatedly organized actions of protest against Armenian
representatives’ visits to Baku. Elkhan Kuliyev stated that Baku
prefers to seek the solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem through
the Minsk OSCE group, since negotiations between the presidents of
Azerbaijan and Armenia held in Paris failed.
The absence of the Armenian defense minister is not the only problem.
Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili will not attend the
meeting either. Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko
arrived Baku with “special opinion.” He said: “Ukraine’s status is
an observer. We will not sign documents passed at the meeting.”
Hrytsenko arrives in Baku in the wake of a scandal over an unauthorized
visit to the Crimea by NATO representatives. He had to apologize on
television for concealing information that the US cargo ship which
visited Feodosia on May 27 carried weapons.