PUNDITS SAY AZERBAIJAN HAS NO ALTERNATIVE TO NATO

ANS TV, Azerbaijan
Oct 7 2007

As Russia has promised to provide its ex-Soviet allies, including
Armenia, with cheaper weapons, experts in Azerbaijan say that the
country was left no choice but to join NATO.

Moscow said on 6 October that it will sell more weapons at cheaper
prices to its allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation
(CSTO) in exchange for their playing a bigger role in peacekeeping
operations in the region.

"CSTO members will now get special equipment at domestic Russian
prices," Reuters quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying
after a summit in the Tajik capital Dushanbe.

Putin’s statement showed that Armenia is concerned by Azerbaijan’s
military build-up, prominent Azerbaijani political analyst Rasim
Musabayov told local ANS television.

"This means that they [Armenians] are concerned. This also means that
Russia is concerned as well," Musabayov said.

The expert suggested that Azerbaijan should respond by "developing
its strategic partnership with Georgia and Turkey into military
cooperation".

Another Baku-based expert, Rasim Agayev, said that Azerbaijan needs
to speed up its integration into NATO.

"The only choice is NATO," Agayev told ANS. "Azerbaijan should try
NATO, as it has no other alternative."

ANS quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Xazar Ibrahim as expressing
the hope that Russia would be "careful" in arms sales to Armenia.

Baku and Yerevan are officially in a state of war over Nagornyy
Karabakh – a territory that is predominantly populated by ethnic
Armenians but is legally part of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost control
over the territory and several adjacent regions in a war with Armenia
in the early 1990s.