January 16, 2004 - 20:05 AMT
YEREVAN EXPECTING NATO REACTION ON ARMENIAN DELEGATION NON-ADMISSION TO NATO CONFERENCE IN BAKU
NATO will certainly speak out on the non-admission of the Armenian officers to the participation in the Baku planning conference on Cooperative Best Effort-2004 NATO exercise, as during the preparatory stage the Alliance representatives took active part in the process of sending the Armenian military men to Azerbaijan, Armenian defense minister Serge Sargsian stated in his interview to the Armenian Public Television. Otherwise, in his opinion, a lot of questions would remain open for all the participants of "Partnership for Peace" NATO program. To remind, despite numerous attempts of the Armenian officers to leave for Baku to take part in the NATO conference, they were not allowed to the Azerbaijani capital. According to the recent statement of the RA MFA, the Armenian defense ministry's delegation was not allowed to leave Istanbul for Baku "by instructions and interference of the Azeri leadership".