Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry condemns Armenia
for arming beyond its commitments.
At present, the Armenian
Armed Forces have 48,884 personnel and 45,000 in
Nagorno-Karabakh. In all, there are 93,000 people. According to commitments
made in 1992, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces have 70,000 personnel, the second
secretary of the Security Problems Office of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry
Elchin Huseynli said at the opening of the international conference
"Establishing relations across borders" in Baku on Tuesday. It was organized by the GUAM
PA and the Baltic Assembly.
Huseynli said that Azerbaijan uses
the purchased weapons to protect its energy infrastructure.
Huseynli stressed that Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of substantial arming
and violating the balance of power in the region. He added that Armenia is
being armed much more intensively.
"Armenia
purchased 16,000 Kalashnikov rifles last year and 78,000 the year before last. "Armenia
prepares for war, rather than peace."
He said that Latvian
company "Latspeceksports" is involved in the sale of weapons to Armenia. Appealing
to the parliamentarians of the Baltic Assembly member-states, Huseynli called
on them to investigate this issue.
Talking about the
negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Huseynli stressed that Armenia has
moved away from its positions at the talks, which have been held for many
years.
"The co-chairing
countries turn a blind eye to it, the norms and principles of the international
law," he said.
He stressed that Armenia
makes illegal actions in the Azerbaijani occupied territories.
"Armenia holds the fictitious elections in the
occupied territory, destroying Azerbaijan's
historical and cultural monuments," he said. "The attempts are made
to attract the companies from the Minsk Group co-chairing countries to
cooperate in these areas. Baku
will never allow this."
He said that the relations
between Armenia and Russia are the
cause of instability in the region.
"Armenia is the
smallest country in the region," he said. "It has important military
and political agreements with Russia
now. Regional conflicts seriously hinder the development of the region. If
these conflicts are resolved, the South Caucasus
will become an economically developed region. Azerbaijan's position is well
known. The joint projects are out of the question till the conflicts are
resolved."