NEW RUSSIAN BASES IN ARMENIA TO CAUSE REGIONAL TENSION – AZERI OFFICIAL, MP
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku,
28 Sep 07
[Presenter] Russia is continuing talks in Yerevan on setting up
a second [military] base in Armenia. Azerbaijan believes that if
the talks are successful, the situation in the South Caucasus will
seriously deteriorate. In the meantime, the Moscow government refuses
to make a clear-cut statement on the issue.
[Correspondent] If Russia succeeds in its plans to set up new military
bases in Armenia, this will create tension both in the settlement of
the Nagornyy Karabakh problem and in the South Caucasus as a whole,
[Azerbaijani] Defence Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu said. He
noted that representatives of the Russian Defence Ministry were
currently discussing the issue with Yerevan officials. Although Russia
is trying to conceal its plans to set up new bases under the guise
of development plans, this does not sound convincing. The ministry
spokesman said that if the report is confirmed, Baku will send a
protest note to Russia. However, the truth is that Russia wants to
conceal the increase in its military aid [to Armenia].
[Russian ambassador to Azerbaijan Vasiliy Istratov, in Russian with
superimposed translation into Azerbaijani] I cannot comment since
this has not been confirmed officially. Therefore, we have yet to
verify the report. If we are talking about the withdrawal of military
hardware from Georgia, it is being redeployed to the Russian base in
Gyumri. It is not Armenian hardware, it belongs to Russia.
[Correspondent] Ziyafat Asgarov, chairman of the standing parliamentary
commission for security issues, believes that by taking this step,
Russia has once again confirmed that it backs Armenia’s position
on the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement. The Baku government intends
to inform the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs of the issue. The deputy
speaker did not rule out that the issue could be put on the agenda
of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s autumn session.
[Asgarov] We will raise this issue once again soon at the autumn
session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland –
both the renewed armament of Armenia and fires in Azerbaijani lands
and other issues.