Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. E.Huseynli / Azerbaijan forms the military budget in compliance with its national interests. "No international organization can dictate Azerbaijan issues concerning increase of military budget," Eldar Safarov, the head of the Defense Ministry's press-service, reported on 30 November.
The Azerbaijani State Budget for 2008 exceeds AZN 7bln. The Government allocated some AZN 1bln to military expenditures.
The special representative of the European Union on South Caucasus Piter Semnebi on his visit to Armenia on 19 November stated that the increase of the military budget of Azerbaijan may cause danger.
Safarov said that international organizations should be alarmed of increase of military budget of the countries which have no military conflict. Taking into consideration that Azerbaijan has a territorial conflict the increase in military budget of Azerbaijan is a real fact.
"If international countries do not want a war they must force Armenia to reject from its occupy policy," Safarov said.
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 the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.