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AZERBAIJAN TO DOUBLE MILITARY SPENDING: REPORT
Agence France Presse
April 15, 2008 Tuesday 12:08 PM GMT
Azerbaijan will double military spending this year as it continues
an arms build-up amid tensions with Armenia-backed separatists,
the official daily newspaper Azerbaijan reported on Tuesday.
President Ilham Aliyev said at a cabinet meeting late Monday that he
wanted to raise the military's budget to nearly two billion dollars
(1.26 billion euros) in 2008, the newspaper reported.
That sum amounted to a revision after he earlier announced a 30
percent rise from one billion dollars (630 million euros) to 1.3
billion dollars (820 million euros).
"We cannot forget that we are at war," the daily quoted Aliyev as
saying, referring to the conflict over the ethnic Armenian enclave
of Nagorny Karabakh.
"I believe we must increase military spending despite the fact that
1.3 billion dollars is a large sum.... Military spending this year
must be nearer to two billion dollars," he said.
Ex-Soviet Azerbaijan's economy has surged thanks to soaring oil
revenues and the country had already more than quadrupled its military
budget since 2004 by last year.
Aliyev has vowed to use "all means" to restore Azerbaijani control
over Nagorny Karabakh.
Backed by Armenia, ethnic Armenian forces took control of Nagorny
Karabakh during a war in the early 1990s that killed thousands and
forced nearly a million people on both sides to flee their homes.
A ceasefire was signed in 1994 but the dispute remains unresolved
after more than a decade of negotiations. Troops remain in a tense
stand-off and shootings are common.
Agence France Presse
April 15, 2008 Tuesday 12:08 PM GMT
Azerbaijan will double military spending this year as it continues
an arms build-up amid tensions with Armenia-backed separatists,
the official daily newspaper Azerbaijan reported on Tuesday.
President Ilham Aliyev said at a cabinet meeting late Monday that he
wanted to raise the military's budget to nearly two billion dollars
(1.26 billion euros) in 2008, the newspaper reported.
That sum amounted to a revision after he earlier announced a 30
percent rise from one billion dollars (630 million euros) to 1.3
billion dollars (820 million euros).
"We cannot forget that we are at war," the daily quoted Aliyev as
saying, referring to the conflict over the ethnic Armenian enclave
of Nagorny Karabakh.
"I believe we must increase military spending despite the fact that
1.3 billion dollars is a large sum.... Military spending this year
must be nearer to two billion dollars," he said.
Ex-Soviet Azerbaijan's economy has surged thanks to soaring oil
revenues and the country had already more than quadrupled its military
budget since 2004 by last year.
Aliyev has vowed to use "all means" to restore Azerbaijani control
over Nagorny Karabakh.
Backed by Armenia, ethnic Armenian forces took control of Nagorny
Karabakh during a war in the early 1990s that killed thousands and
forced nearly a million people on both sides to flee their homes.
A ceasefire was signed in 1994 but the dispute remains unresolved
after more than a decade of negotiations. Troops remain in a tense
stand-off and shootings are common.