NATO conference held in Baku under anti-Armenian slogans

Activists of the Azerbaijan radical Organization for Karabakh Liberation (OKL), lead by Akif Nagi, has made an attempt to hamper the work of a NATO conference being held under the Partnership for Peace program in Baku.

Officers of the Armenian Armed Forces, Colonel Murad Isakhanian and Senior Lieutenant Aram Ovanesian arrived in the capital of Azerbaijan by invitation of the NATO leadership to attend the conference to plan the multinational military exercises 2004 Cooperative Best Effort.

Early in the morning of June 22, dozens of OKL activists with anti-Armenian transparencies surrounded the hotel in which the conference is being held. Some of them managed to break through the police cordon, approach the building, and smash glass entry doors. One activist even managed to get into the hotel. Several people were injured in the clash with law enforcers, and one activist was detained.

Members of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party took the OKL activists' place in the afternoon. In spite of it, the conference is going on.

This conference is the second one to plan the NATO military exercises in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan authorities prevented Armenian servicemen from attending the first conference.