By Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California Courier NATO officials finally got fed up with all the lies and childish games played by the novice Azeri President, Ilham Aliyev, and canceled the military exercises that were scheduled to take place on Sept. 14-27 in Azerbaijan. Since the beginning of the year, Azerbaijan's leaders had repeatedly assured NATO officials that they would not impede Armenia's participation in these exercises. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are members of NATO's Partnership for Peace program. Earlier this year, three Armenian military officers tried to attend a planning conference in Baku. After getting a run-around for several days, they were eventually refused entry into Azerbaijan. In June, when two other Armenian officers finally managed to attend a second planning conference in Baku, several Azeri thugs broke into the hotel where the conference was being held, threatening to harm the Armenian participants. When some of these hooligans were arrested and sent to jail, Pres. Aliyev complained that the courts were being too harsh on them. Earlier this month, as an Armenian delegation was preparing to travel to Baku, high ranking Azeri officials, contrary to the commitments they had made to NATO, started saying that the Armenians were not welcome in Azerbaijan. Finally, the government of Azerbaijan refused to grant an entry visa to the Armenian officers. As NATO rules do not allow affiliated member countries to exclude one another from exercises being held on their territory, Azerbaijan had violated the principle of inclusiveness. Therefore, NATO had no choice but to cancel the planned exercises in Azerbaijan. Azeri thugs and government officials immediately began celebrating the fact that they had succeeded in keeping the Armenians out of their country. But, one wonders, at what price? Azeri officials for a number of years had nurtured the pipe dream that Azerbaijan would shortly join NATO. They were hoping that NATO would then take their side in the Karabagh conflict. After all the games played by Azeri officials leading to the undermining of an important NATO activity, it does not look very likely that Azerbaijan would be admitted to NATO membership anytime soon! In addition to the violation of NATO rules of inclusiveness, the Azeri officials have shown to the whole world that Azerbaijan is not a reliable partner, and that the word of its leaders means nothing. Basically, they proved that Azerbaijan is a banana republic. Finally, Pres. Aliyev made a big mistake by allowing this small group of street thugs, who were opposed to the participation of Armenians in theNATO exercises, to take the lead in this emotionally-charged issue. Their "successful" and "heroic" efforts would enable them to attract fresh recruits to their fanatical cause. Thus emboldened, they will be making more and more radical demands on the government, eventually leading to the destabilization and may be even the toppling of the Aliyev regime.

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