BAKU (Noyan Tapan)–Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Vafa Guluzade described Yevgeny Primakov’s attempt to eliminate Baku’s apprehensions regarding the Russia-Armenia agreement as awkward.
The British Broadcasting Company Radio reported that–commenting on Primakov’s statement that Russia is ready to seal an agreement with Azerbaijan similar to that it had concluded with Armenia–Guluzade noted that this was impossible–since the Russia-Armenia agreement includes provisions regarding military bases and joint guarding of borders.
According to Azerbaijan’s state advisor–Russia–which claims the role of a neutral mediator in the Karabakh conflict and a leader of CIS–has made an unforgivable mistake–having sealed such an agreement with Armenia.
"Russia had no moral right to sign under a military-political alliance with a country-aggressor–that is Armenia. The given agreement puts Russia even in a more awkward situation–as the scandal over the [alleged] illegal arms supplies to Armenia worth $1 billion has not yet been settled," Guluzade said.
"We hold that the agreement recently signed with Armenia has a very great importance for the development of relations between our two countries as well as for the stabilization of the situation in the region," read a statement from the Russian foriegn ministry.