June 23, 2005 - 12:29 AMT
AZERBAIJAN INTENDS TO ESTABLISH FRONTIER CONTROL WITH ARMENIA
Azerbaijan intends to establish frontier control with Armenia, with whom it is in a state of war, reported Deputy Commander of the State Frontier Service (SFS) of Azerbaijan Ilham Mehtiyev at an international seminar on threats to frontier security in the South Caucasus opened in Baku with the support of the NATO Thursday. "Due to the military confrontation with Armenia we have not managed to form frontier infrastructures yet, while this is the longest part of the state frontier (1007 km)," Mehtiyev said. "Today we already carry out preliminary works to form the material basis for establishing control over the segment of the state frontier. I should remark that is a work of a huge scale and it will be hard for us to do it on our own without the support of international structures," he underscored. Mr. Mehtiyev also stated "occupation of Azeri territories by Armenia is a factor that has a negative impact on the development of the region." He also highlighted cooperation in strengthening the frontier security within the organization of GUAM, whose members are Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova. "Our interaction in securing frontiers is one of the pivotal aspects of regional cooperation between our states and has real prospects. This is a key task we have to solve within the next 5-10 years," he said, the Trud newspaper reported.