Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend S.Agayeva / The Press Secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, Khazar Ibrahim, said on 8 October that Azerbaijan is concerned about the armament of Armenia, because of an agreement by Russia to sell Russian arms with Russia's internal prices to the Countries of Organization of Agreement on Collective Security (OACS).
The agreement on selling Russian arms with Russia's internal prices to OACS countries was signed during the Summit of OACS State Heads which took place on 6 October in Dushanbe. Armenia has also joined the organization.
" Azerbaijan hopes that Russia will understand the country's concern about delivering arms to Armenia within the agreement," Ibrahim said.
According to him, this decision has been made within the organization. "However, considering that Russia is the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group for Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, we believe that Russia will take into consideration all details whilst taking such steps," he said. Ibrahim said that the Azerbaijani side will present its concerns to Russia in the case of violating the agreement on flank arms within the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time active hostilities ended. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.