ARMINFO News Agency
October 8, 2005
AUGMENTATION OF AZERBAIJAN’S MILITARY BUDGET REAL THREAT TO PEACE AND
STABILITY IN SOUTH CAUCASUS
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8. ARMINFO. The augmentation of Azerbaijan’s
military budget is a great threat to peace and stability in the South
Caucasus, Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Vahan Hovhannissyan
said during the NATO Rose Roth semiar in Yerevan today.
This is especially dangerous as after the USSR collapse Azerbaijan
got twice as much military hardware as Armenia – 312 T72 tanks
against 241, 545 infantry fighting vehicles against 298.
Concerning the Karabakh conflict Hovhannissyan says that Karabakh has
never been part of independent Azerbaijan. There had even been no
Azerbaijan as such before the proclamation of the Soviet Azerbaijan.
The territory of present day Azerbaijan had another name while the
Azeris were known worldwide as Caucasian Tartars. Karabakh was given
to the Soviet Azerbaijan in 1921 and proclaimed self-determination
after the USSR collapse like all the other Soviet republics and
according to the international law.