BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijan accused Russia on Friday of supplying arms to Armenia, its foe in one of the most intractable conflicts arising from the Soviet Union's collapse.
Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov denied his country’s oil-financed military expansion meant it was planning war to take back the region of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenians, and said there was “no miracle” in sight to resolve the dispute.
“Armenia is being supplied by its military ally, Russia,” Azimov, who is responsible for security issues at the foreign ministry, said in an interview with Reuters.
He said Moscow was equipping Armenia, its closest ally in the Caucasus, under cover of restocking its military hardware at the Russian military base in the Armenian town of Gyumri.
“We know that from time to time Russia is maintaining its presence in Gyumri. When new pieces are brought in, what happens to the old ones?” he said. “Things are coming in, and nothing is coming out.”
Both Moscow and Yerevan have vehemently denied that Russia is supplying a military build-up in Armenia. Russia says it moved some troops and equipment to Gyumri after they pulled out of bases in neighbouring Georgia under an arms control pact.
Some analysts suggested last year’s war between Russia and Georgia, also over an unresolved ethnic and territorial dispute, might revitalise efforts to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh, but diplomats say that beyond rhetoric there is little progress.
Ethnic Armenian separatists, backed by Armenia, fought a war in the 1990s to throw off Azerbaijan’s control over mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh. An estimated 30,000 people were killed.
No peace accord has ever been signed, and the ceasefire is frequently tested by fatal exchanges of fire across the frontline. Armenia backs Nagorno-Karabakh’s demand for independence, something Azerbaijan says it can never have.
SHIFTING POWER
But the balance of power in the region has shifted dramatically since the end of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan’s economic and military growth, based on oil exported westwards, has rapidly outpaced that of Armenia.
The mainly Muslim country, led by President Ilham Aliyev since he succeeded his father Heydar in 2003, refuses to rule out taking back Nagorno-Karabakh by force. Azerbaijan votes in a referendum next week on whether to scrap a two-term presidential limit, allowing Aliyev to run again in 2013.
Azimov said Azerbaijan, by growing its economy, its military and its image as a stable partner for the West, was trying to convince Armenia of the need to compromise.
But he denied Baku was looking for war, saying: “It’s good to have a strong army, it’s even better not to use it.”
“We never said and we never say that we shall go to war with Armenia,” he said. But with Armenia insisting on independence for the region, “I have to say that in all circumstances and by all means we will restore territorial integrity.”
Azimov said he hoped the global economic crisis would force Armenia to give up demands for independence for the region, adding: “The time has come to think realistically for them.”
Armenia has been hit hard by the crisis. Turkey’s decision to close its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan has also taken its toll and shut Armenia out of lucrative energy transit deals currently enjoyed by Georgia.
