Associated Press Worldstream
June 26, 2004 Saturday
Armenia will take part in NATO-sponsored exercises in Azerbaijan
YEREVAN, Armenia
Armenia will take part in NATO-sponsored exercises in Azerbaijan this
fall in spite of tensions between the two countries, a top Armenian
military official said Saturday.
Col. Murad Isakhanian, the chief Armenian representative at the Baku
planning conference for NATO’s Partnership for Peace maneuvers, said
Azerbaijan had given security guarantees for the Armenian contingent
at the Cooperative Best Effort-2004 exercises in the Azerbaijani
capital Baku in September.
Earlier this week, several protesters broke into the planning meeting
in Baku and called on Azerbaijan to stop negotiations with Armenia.
The incident highlighted tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh – a territory
disputed by both countries. Isakhanian and another Armenian officer
were among those attending the conference.
Protesters and hotel security guards suffered minor injuries in the
incident in the hotel. Eight people were detained by police.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are at odds over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
which Armenian forces seized from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. A
1994 cease-fire has largely held, but no final settlement has been
reached. Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan are NATO members, but both
former Soviet republics participate in NATO’s Partnership for Peace
program.
Isakhanian said Saturday that Azerbaijani authorities had apologized
for the Baku incident.