Azerbaijan rejects CSTO peacekeeping proposal for Karabakh

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
August 25, 2006 Friday 5:07 PM MSK

Azerbaijan has rejected a proposal for Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO) peacekeepers to be stationed in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

"The Azeri side finds it hard to react to this idea. As is well known,
Azerbaijan is not a member of the CSTO," Foreign Ministry spokesman
Tair Tagizade told Interfax-AVN.

Earlier, CSTO General Secretary Nikolai Bordyuzha proposed CSTO forces
as peacekeepers for the territory of the former Soviet Union.

The CSTO comprises Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Armenia, and Uzbekistan.

"It is the understanding of the parties to the conflict [Azerbaijan
and Armenia] that neither the states that are co-heads of the Minsk
Group of the OSCE nor regional states could be represented among the
countries that would take part in the peacekeeping mission in the
conflict zone," Tagizade said.

The Minsk Group is a mediating body appointed by the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Moreover, the CSTO includes Armenia, a party to the conflict, Tagizade
said. "Therefore we believe that this matter is inapplicable to
Nagorno-Karabakh," he said.