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Diplomat: Russian weapons transferred to Armenia won't destabilize region
By AIDA SULTANOVA
AP Worldstream
Jun 02, 2005
A Russian diplomat sought to assuage Azerbaijani concerns about the
relocation of weapons from Georgia to Armenia, saying Thursday that
the arms and equipment would remain under Russian military control
and would not destabilize the region.
Azerbaijan has voiced fears about Russia's plan to move weaponry
from Georgia to Armenia, which has been locked in a conflict with
Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia is
a staunch ally of Russia.
Pyotr Burdykin, Russia's acting ambassador to Azerbaijan, said Thursday
that the weaponry was being relocated under pressure to speed up the
Russian military withdrawal from Georgia.
"We initially talked about returning all these weapons to Russia
in normal conditions, but Georgia and other nations have insisted
on speeding it up and applied very strong pressure," Burdykin told
reporters in Baku.
Russia agreed to begin withdrawing from two Soviet-era bases in
Georgia by the end of the year and complete the pullout over the
course of 2008.
"This transfer isn't directed against any third country, and it's not
going to affect the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement," Burdykin said. "There
is no sense in blowing it out of proportion."
But Tahir Tagizade, a spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, said
moving the weapons to Armenia would compromise Russia's role as one
of the international mediators to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "We
will insist that Russia listen to our concerns," he said.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region inside Azerbaijan, has been
under the control of ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s, following
fighting that killed an estimated 30,000 people. A cease-fire was
signed in 1994, but the enclave's final political status has not been
determined, and shooting breaks out frequently between the two sides
across a demilitarized buffer zone.
Nagorno-Karabakh's military on Thursday denied Azerbaijani reports
that an Azerbaijani soldier was killed Wednesday in a skirmish on
the border.
The head of Nagorno-Karabakh's election commission, Sergei Nasibian,
defended the enclave's plan to hold parliamentary elections on June 19.
"Azerbaijani's concerns that the parliamentary elections would be an
obstacle to peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are
unfounded," Nasibian said Thursday.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
By AIDA SULTANOVA
AP Worldstream
Jun 02, 2005
A Russian diplomat sought to assuage Azerbaijani concerns about the
relocation of weapons from Georgia to Armenia, saying Thursday that
the arms and equipment would remain under Russian military control
and would not destabilize the region.
Azerbaijan has voiced fears about Russia's plan to move weaponry
from Georgia to Armenia, which has been locked in a conflict with
Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia is
a staunch ally of Russia.
Pyotr Burdykin, Russia's acting ambassador to Azerbaijan, said Thursday
that the weaponry was being relocated under pressure to speed up the
Russian military withdrawal from Georgia.
"We initially talked about returning all these weapons to Russia
in normal conditions, but Georgia and other nations have insisted
on speeding it up and applied very strong pressure," Burdykin told
reporters in Baku.
Russia agreed to begin withdrawing from two Soviet-era bases in
Georgia by the end of the year and complete the pullout over the
course of 2008.
"This transfer isn't directed against any third country, and it's not
going to affect the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement," Burdykin said. "There
is no sense in blowing it out of proportion."
But Tahir Tagizade, a spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, said
moving the weapons to Armenia would compromise Russia's role as one
of the international mediators to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "We
will insist that Russia listen to our concerns," he said.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region inside Azerbaijan, has been
under the control of ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s, following
fighting that killed an estimated 30,000 people. A cease-fire was
signed in 1994, but the enclave's final political status has not been
determined, and shooting breaks out frequently between the two sides
across a demilitarized buffer zone.
Nagorno-Karabakh's military on Thursday denied Azerbaijani reports
that an Azerbaijani soldier was killed Wednesday in a skirmish on
the border.
The head of Nagorno-Karabakh's election commission, Sergei Nasibian,
defended the enclave's plan to hold parliamentary elections on June 19.
"Azerbaijani's concerns that the parliamentary elections would be an
obstacle to peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are
unfounded," Nasibian said Thursday.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress