AZERBAIJAN SHOWS OFF MILITARY MIGHT

Voice of America
June 26 2008

Azerbaijan staged its first military parade in 16 years Thursday to
mark the anniversary of the founding of the country’s armed forces.

Tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled through the streets
of Baku as military aircraft flew overhead in what news agencies
described as a show of force aimed partly at neighboring Armenia.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev told participants the Azerbaijani
people are tired of negotiations with Armenia over the breakaway
Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. He said the talks cannot go
on forever.

Mr. Aliyev said Azerbaijan continues to live in a state of war due
to the unresolved conflict.

The Azerbaijani leader said the country’s annual defense spending
has risen to more than $2 billion, 10 times what it was in 2003,
and will continue to increase.

The two countries fought a six-year conflict after residents of
the largely-Armenian-inhabited Nagorno-Karabakh region declared
independence in 1988. A 1994 cease-fire halted the most serious
fighting, though sporadic exchanges of gunfire continue. The conflict
has claimed 35,000 lives.

Photo: Azeri armoured personnel carriers drive through the center
of Baku as part of a military parade in honor of Armed Forces Day,
26 Jun 2008 m