Azernews.Az

The government of Azerbaijan has accused arch-foe Armenia of pursuing excessive armament in violation of its international obligations.

"Armenian armed forces currently have 48,884 personnel, and there are 45,000 in Nagorno Karabakh [an Azerbaijani region under Armenian occupation], for a total of over 93,000," Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry representative Elchin Huseynli said. "Azerbaijan has 70,000 personnel, in accordance with the obligation it assumed in 1992."

Huseynli told a joint international conference of the regional group GUAM’s parliamentary assembly and the Baltic Assembly on Tuesday that Azerbaijan’s weaponry purchases aim to protect energy infrastructure.

The Foreign Ministry representative said Armenia baselessly accuses Azerbaijan of "disrupting the armament balance" in the region and is, itself, pursuing militarization.

"Armenia bought 78,000 and 16,000 AK submachine guns in 2009 and 2010 respectively. This shows that it is getting ready for war, not peace," Huseynli said.

According to him, Latvia’s arms supplier Latspeceksports is involved in the sales of weaponry to Armenia and called on the parliament members represented in the Baltic Assembly who joined the Baku conference to scrutinize the issue.

Latvia is investigating Baku’s warning about arms sales to Armenia, said Yanis Reirs, Baltic Assembly’s vice president, who heads the Latvian delegation visiting Azerbaijan.

Reirs told a press conference Tuesday that the delegation members contacted the Latvian defense ministry and were told that no local company had been granted a license for the export of weaponry to Armenia.

Huseynli also said Armenia’s close ties to Russia are destabilizing the region.

"Armenia, the smallest country in the region, now has major military-political agreements with Russia," he added.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war in the early 1990s. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since a ceasefire was signed in 1994. Peace talks, brokered by the United States, Russia and France through the OSCE Minsk Group, have been largely fruitless so far.