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.