Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group

Rzayev had gotten into his car to be driven to work when he was shot, the private television
station Lider reported. Veliyev said investigators were looking at security-camera footage
from the home and searching the area for clues, but were hampered by the heavy rains that
fell all night.
Rzayev, 63, was a longtime Soviet military officer who became head of Azerbaijan's air force
shortly after the country gained independence in the 1991 Soviet collapse.
As air-defense forces chief, he had represented Azerbaijan in talks with Russia and the U.S.
on Moscow's 2007 proposal to make a Soviet-built radar station in Azerbaijan part of a joint
missile shield to protect against potential threat from, Iran.
The Kremlin proposal failed to persuade the U.S. administration to abandon plans for missile
defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic, which Russian officials contend are
actually aimed to weaken their country.
Moscow uses the Gabala station as part of its early-warning system. It is renting the Gabala
station until at least 2012, but is building a radar station in southern Russia as a potential
alternative once that lease expires.
The United States and European Union have cultivated warm ties with Azerbaijan because of
its oil riches and its location on an energy export route bypassing Russia and Iran, and
Azerbaijan is one of the few mostly Muslim countries that have sent troops to Iraq. But the
U.S. and Europe have expressed concern over government treatment of opponents and
independent media under Aliyev, who succeeded his long-ruling father in 2003 after an
election the opposition said was rigged.
Armenian position on Karabakh doesn't help settlement process
Interfax news Agency, 2/12/09
The opinion of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan that there are no legal grounds to restore
Azerbaijani jurisdiction over Karabakh does not help resolve the Karabakh problem,
Azerbaijani Foreign ministry spokesman Khazar Ibragim told Interfax.
"I do not know which notions the Armenian president implies, but Karabakh is an
Azerbaijani territory from the legal and historical points of view," he said.
"Azerbaijan does not bargain with its lands. It does not plan to waive an inch of its lands
either," he said.
"There is no Karabakh people. There is a Karabakh population made up of the Azerbaijani
and Armenian communities," Ibragim said.
As for another statement by Sargsyan, which proclaimed the absence of alternative to peace
settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Ibragim said that Azerbaijan adhered to the same
principle.