President: Azerbaijan is strong enough to solve Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict by force
.c The Associated Press
LYANKARAN, Azerbaijan (AP) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev said
Thursday that while the ex-Soviet nation still hopes for a peaceful
solution to the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it has enough
military strength to solve it by force.
Aliev made the statement while campaigning for the ruling Yeni
Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) party in the run-up to the Nov. 6
parliamentary elections in an apparent response to the opposition’s
claim that a change in government is necessary to win back control
over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed enclave that has been under the
control of Armenian separatists since the early 1990s.
“We are creating a strong military potential, and the enemy must know
that Azerbaijan is capable of liberating its lands at any moment,”
Aliev said in a speech in the town of Lyankoran, some 270 kilometers
(170 miles) south of the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.
He said the oil-rich Caspian nation, which budgeted over US$300
million (euro240 million) for defense this year, will double its
defense spending next year.
Tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains high more than a decade
after a 1994 cease-fire ended a six-year war that left
Nagorno-Karabakh in Armenian hands. Some 30,000 people were killed and
a million displaced, and the lack of resolution of the enclave’s
status has impeded economic development in the region.
09/08/05 14:51 EDT