Petr Mikiska: The Czech Republic abides by agreement on banning arms  sales to conflicting parties

ArmInfo. The Czech Republic complies with an agreement to ban the sale of weapons to the conflicting parties. The Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Armenia  Petr Mikiska stated this on October 18 at a press conference in  Yerevan, commenting on the visit of the Minister of Defense of  Azerbaijan and holding a meeting with representatives of defense  enterprises.

"Azerbaijan is not in my competence, but I do not see anything  supernatural in the fact that the Azerbaijani Defense Minister is now  in the Czech Republic and holds meetings, including with  representatives of defense enterprises, since it is not a matter of  selling weapons," the diplomat said. In this context, he recalled  that two years ago, the Minister of Defense of Armenia was in the  Czech Republic, and held meetings, including with representatives of  defense enterprises.

He also assured that the Czech Republic is in compliance with all its  commitments to ban the sale of weapons to conflicting countries, and  stressed that the scandal raised around the Czech DANA artillery  systems arose from the fact that Slovakia had violated its  obligations. In this context, he recalled that the Czech side revoked  the license to export these weapons.

Mikiska also stressed that Armenian Minister of Defense David TonRyan  was also invited to the " Future Forces 2018 International Exhibition  ", which is also attended by the head of the Azerbaijani Defense  Ministry participates.

Earlier, the media reported on the revelations of Czech journalists,  according to which, the airport in Bratislava is used to smuggle  weapons to Azerbaijan through the territory of Slovakia: rocket  launchers and howitzers are transported. According to Czech  journalists, since there is a circumstance of conflict in the NKR,  arms supplies to Azerbaijan have certain limitations, which, in fact,  have been violated. It is said that the weapon is produced by the  Czechoslovak Group holding, owned by well-known Jaroslav Strnad, the  manufacturer of the weapon. Despite the fact that the company  completely denies the allegations, after the publication of the  results of a journalistic investigation, an employee of the arms  company MSM said that the old weapons were being improved in the  Slovak city of Trencin, which were then transferred to Azerbaijan via  Israel.

Last year, there was a scandal in connection with the presence of the  Czech weapons in the Azerbaijani armed forces: the Dana howitzers and  the Vampire rocket launchers made by the Czechoslovak Group holding.  Government agencies and the secret services of the Czech Republic  began checks on the issue.