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Mammadyarov: â€œCommission has been established to take measures for closing Gabala RLSâ€

30 December 2012 10:03 (UTC +04:00)

The commission is chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov,” said Azerbaijan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mammadyarov in his interview to a group of information agencies, APA reports. Commenting on the situation over Gabala RLS the minister said that the necessary measures would be taken in connection with the stock-taking of the real and movable property, transfer of the station staff and their relatives as well as removal of the private property.

Put into operation in 1985, Gabala Radar Station is a Daryal-type bistatic phased-array early warning radar, and one of the 8 stations of the missile defense complex of the former USSR: "After the independence of our country, permission was given for the exploitation of the station by Russia and according to the agreement signed between the countries in 2002, the radar station was leased to Russia by 2012 for a symbolic price. The sides discussed the extension of the station’s lease term at the level of experts in the recent years. They expressed their interests at the discussions. Azerbaijan demonstrated a constructive position on this issue and tried to solve the problem. Despite this, the talks failed to reach an agreement on the lease payment of the station. Our goal was to raise the cooperation regarding the station to the level of today's requirements, cooperate with Russia based on the requirements existing at the international level and relevant proposals were sent the opposite site. As you know, the Russian Federation sent a note to the Azerbaijani side on the suspension of station’s operation from December 10, 2012 due to the invalidity of the agreement on “The status, principles and terms of Gabala RLS between the Azerbaijani Government and Russian Government” from December 9, 2012” and the station’s exploitation was terminated.