CHOICE SUGGESTED TO BAKU: "SEIZED" REGIONS OR NATO BASES

PanARMENIAN.Net - The issue whether NATO mobile military bases will be launched in Azerbaijan or Baku will agree to the Moscow proposal to give up those plans in exchange for the pledge to return two or three "seized" regions will be decided within January, an informed source in the defense ministry of Azerbaijan told "Echo" newspaper. Meanwhile, an officer of one of the military detachments situated in Apsheron told the newspaper the other day that US "F" warplanes are already in the territory of the military airdrome in Nasosny settlement. Besides, "Garaeybat" military ground in the Garadagh region has been encircled for some time. "Via binoculars we have seen US lorries, which were delivering military materiel and equipment. It was seen that something was being built on the ground," he said. The informed source supposed that it were the Turkish military who recommended their NATO partners to use that ground to fulfill various military tasks. As of the airdrome in Nasosny, it will most probably become a place to locate the NATO mobile troops, the source noted. Certain arrangements for placing foreign troops in Azerbaijan are already being held, he stated. At that the source in the defense ministry of Azerbaijan reported that for the first quarter of 2004 some advancement in the Karabakh issue will begin to show. "From conversations at a serious level" he became informed that Moscow promises support to Azerbaijan in liberating a few of the "seized" regions via peaceful means, in exchange for which Azerbaijan will have to lay aside the issue of placing NATO mobile bases in its territory. Considerable work is being done in this respect now, the source emphasized. In his words, already in January a meeting of presidents Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin can be held, after which very serious changes in the Karabakh issue will be observed." According to the information possessed by the source, "Russia is ready to suggest Fizuli, Gubadly and maybe other lots of the adjacent territory - some three regions are at stake" as compensation to Azerbaijan.