YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Arsen Gasparian says that Azerbaijan does not reduce its arms as required by the Conventional Arms in Europe Treaty.
In particular–following Azerbaijan’s military information package for 1997–Azerbaijan exceeds the "arms ceiling" by 50 tanks–337 armored vehicles and 16 artillery units. It is fixed in the 1995 report by the US Agency for Arms and Disarmament–which was presented by US President Bill Clinton on July 26 1996 to the US Congress–that Azerbaijan exceeded the allowed arms limits by 738 items.
"If we compare the number of planes and helicopters of Armenia and Azerbaijan–here also the lead is for Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan declared 48 war planes and 15 helicopters–while Armenia 6 and 7 respectively," Gasparian said.
Under the Tashkent agreement of 1992–Armenia and Azerbaijan can have no more than 220 tanks–220 armored vehicles–285 artillery units–100 war planes and 5 helicopters.
Ignoring the aforementioned–Azerbaijan is trying to present that it is Armenia that makes violations–taking as a base the assertion on arms supply from Russia to Armenia–which was not confirmed by the investigation conducted by Russia’s State Duma and US Senate.
Arsen Gasparian also said that following data provided by Azerbaijan–in 1993-94 Azerbaijan received 947 armored vehicles–436 tanks–388 artillery units from Ukraine–which is in violation itself.
