ARMY "DECISIVE FACTOR" IN N.-KARABAKH PROCESS – AZERBAIJAN

Interfax News Agency
Aug 6 2008
Russia

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said on Tuesday that "a powerful army is
the decisive factor" in efforts by Azerbaijan to bring the country’s
disputed and breakaway Armenian- speaking enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh
back under Azeri control.

"The military parade on June 26 showed our strength, our military
potential. Military expenditure holds first place among state
expenditures, and this is the right policy. A powerful army is the
decisive factor in restoring the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,"
Aliyev told a government conference.

"The Azeri position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unchanged
– the solution of the conflict must be based on the principle of
the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and the people who live in
Nagorno-Karabakh, just as the Azeris who are going to move there,
will receive autonomous status. No option outside this is up for
discussion," Aliyev said.

Nagorno-Karabakh, the source of a 20-year-old conflict between
Azerbaijan and Armenia, is a de facto independent state, styling
itself as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress