AZERBAIJAN ACCUSES ARMENIA OF OBSTRUCTING COOPERATION OF BORDER GUARDS OF SOUTH CAUCASUS COUNTRIES (VIDEO)

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Sept 25 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. K.Zarbaliyeva / Implementation of the
regional projects of border guards services of the South Caucasus
countries have been complicated due to the ongoing occupation of the
Azerbaijani territories by Armenians, Elchin Guliyev, the chief of
the State Frontier Service of Azerbaijan, said on 25 September.

The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988
due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has
occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh
region and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these
territories have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time
the active hostilities ended. The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
( Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.

During the meeting of the Task Group within the framework of the
International conference on frontier issues in Baku, Guliyev noted
that measures have been taken to increase border control in compliance
with the State program on Efficient Frontier Guard Development of
Azerbaijan for 2006 and 2010.

The full program will be carried out by 2009.

The Azerbaijan Frontier Service participates in two projects. One of
them is held on a national level, the second within the framework of
the European Neighbourhood Policy through the support of the European
Commission on provide assistance to the South Caucasus countries to
establish the system of integrated frontier management.

The relevant issue of discussions at the meeting will be the theory and
experience of integrated frontier management, the agenda of the 16th
plenary meeting of the international conference on frontier issues,
functioning of Task Groups and many other issues.

The representatives of frontier services of the US, Germany, Belarus,
Great Britain, Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary, Poland and many other
countries, international migration organizations, agencies FRONTEX
and BODERPOL will participate at the meeting.

Azerbaijan joined the International conference on frontier issues in
2002. Presently, Azerbaijan is the member of three Task Groups and
the head of one of them.