Armenian defense officials refuse to attend meeting in Azerbaijan, fearing
safety
AP Worldstream; May 30, 2006
Armenian defense officials refused to attend a meeting of military
chiefs from ex-Soviet republics in neighboring Azerbaijan, saying
officials there could not guarantee their safety, an Armenian official
said Tuesday.
Azerbaijani officials could not assure organizers of the Commonwealth
of Independent States defense ministers’ meeting in Baku, which begins
Wednesday, that the Armenians would be adequately protected, Defense
Ministry spokesman Col. Seiran Shakhsuvaryan said.
Azerbaijani officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Tensions between the two ex-Soviet republics remain high over
Nagorno-Karabakh _ an enclave within Azerbaijan that has been
controlled by ethnic Armenians since a war in the early 1990s that
killed 30,000 people and drove about 1 million people from their
homes. Sporadic border clashes regularly break out and a lack of
resolution has hampered development throughout the strategic Caucasus
region.
Two years ago, during a NATO seminar in Hungary, an Azerbaijani
military officer hacked an Armenian classmate to death with an axe.