Tag: Russia-Armenia

  • Armenia, Russia Sign Extended Defense Pact

    Armenia, Russia Sign Extended Defense Pact

    20.08.2010
    Hasmik Smbatian

    Armenia and Russia have signed a raft of agreements, including a protocol that extends the lease of the Russian military base in the South Caucasus country for nearly a quarter of a century.

    The deal signed after talks between visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian in Yerevan on Friday consolidates Russia’s military presence in the volatile region crisscrossed with pipelines in exchange for security guarantees to Armenia.

    In the presence of the two countries’ leaders signatures to the document were put by Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov.

    The defense pact, which is an upgrading of a 1995 treaty allowing Russian ground and air forces to be stationed in Armenia’s northwestern city of Gyumri near the border with Turkey, extends the Russian presence in the South Caucasus state from the initial 25 years to 49 years, that is, to 2044.

    It also expands the Russian mission from protecting only the interests of the Russian Federation, to also ensuring the security of the Republic of Armenia and commits Moscow to supplying Armenia with modern and compatible weaponry and special military hardware.

    The move is widely viewed in Armenia as a means to discourage neighboring Azerbaijan from committing aggression. Equally, it is likely to become a source of concern in Azerbaijan, which has an unresolved conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh fought a three-year secessionist war against Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. The currently disputed region has been de-facto independent since the 1994 ceasefire mediated by Russia. Moscow is also one of the three principal negotiators, along with Washington and Paris, in continuing talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Speaking in Yerevan on Friday, President Medvedev said the protocol prolonging the treaty on the operation of Russia’s military base in Armenia is aimed

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    Armenia — President Serzh Sarkisian (R) and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev attend a ceremony of documents signing at the presidential palace in Yerevan, 20Aug2010

    at “maintaining peace and security in the entire South Caucasus.”

    Medvedev also stressed that peace in the region is “very important” to Russia and that Moscow remains loyal to its commitments as an ally of Armenia.

    Responding to the media question about Russia’s possible reaction in the event of developments threatening the existence of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, given the war rhetoric heard from Azerbaijan, Medvedev, in particular, said: “The task of the Russian Federation as a major state situated in the region, the most powerful state economically and militarily, is to maintain peace and order. But we also have our allied commitments that we have with members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Republic of Armenia is a member of this organization… Russia treats its commitments as an ally very seriously.”

    The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) groups Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan and calls for allied assistance should any of its members suffer aggression.

    At the news conference Sarkisian praised the deal, which he said would expand the sphere of Russia’s “geographic and strategic” responsibilities, meaning that the base will not only be responsible for protecting the perimeter of the former Soviet Union border, i.e. with Iran and Turkey, but also beyond them.

    “The Russian side has made a commitment to ensure the military security of the Republic of Armenia and to cooperate in equipping our armed forces with advanced weaponry,” Sarkisian said.

    At the same time, Sarkisian stressed that Armenia continues to stand for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict “without application of force or threat of force.”

    Sarkisian also thanked Medvedev for his mediatory efforts as well as for “understanding the meaning of the balance of forces in the region as an important factor of not allowing provocations and preventing militaristic ambitions.”

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    Armenia — Presidents of Armenia and Russia take part in the re-opening of 19th century Russian military cemetery, Gyumri, 20Aug2010

    Medvedev, for his part, said he was ready to continue his mediatory efforts and work with both Azerbaijan and Armenia to help find a political solution “based on mutually acceptable agreements both within the general work of the OSCE Minsk Group and in bilateral contacts with Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

    Analysts agree that the new deal with Armenia puts Russia on a stronger military footing in the South Caucasus where it also has bases in Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

    In Yerevan representatives of Armenia and Russia also signed four other documents, including an agreement concerning the construction of new energy units for Armenia’s ageing nuclear power plant.

    In the afternoon Sarkisian and Medvedev attended a ceremony in Gyumri inaugurating the Hill of Honor, a restored Russian military cemetery founded in the 19th century as the final resting place for many Russian officers and soldiers killed in Russo-Turkish wars.

    Later on August 20, the presidents of Armenia and Russia attended the opening of an informal summit of CSTO leaders hosted by Yerevan.

    https://www.azatutyun.am/a/2132965.html
  • Russia to prolong military presence in Armenia

    Russia to prolong military presence in Armenia

    YEREVAN, Aug 18 (Reuters) – Armenia said on Wednesday it had agreed to extend the lease on a Russian military base in the South Caucasus country until 2044, strengthening Moscow’s military presence in the strategic region.

    The deal will be signed during a visit to Yerevan by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday and Friday.

    Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian confirmed the lease extension in an interview with Rossiya-24 television.

    It will prolong for decades Russia’s military presence in Armenia, its chief strategic and economic ally in a region criss-crossed by pipelines carrying Central Asian and Caspian oil and gas to Europe.

    The Russian military also has troops in two breakaway regions of neighbouring Georgia, where it is building up bases in the wake of a five-day war over rebel South Ossetia in 2008.

    Russia and Armenia signed a deal in 1995 allowing the Russian base in the town of Gyumri on Armenia’s closed western border with Turkey to operate for 25 years. Nalbandian said the changes would extend that deal to 49 years from 1995.

    He said the deal would spell out that the Russian base would help secure the landlocked country of 3.2 million people, where the spectre of renewed conflict with oil-producing Azerbaijan over rebel Nagorno-Karabakh is never far away.

    “And in realising those goals, the Russian side will assist in providing Armenia with weapons and modern military equipment,” Nalbandian said. Some in the Armenian opposition have complained the deal undermines the country’s independence.

    Russia has several thousand soldiers in Gyumri, who help patrol Armenia’s western border with NATO-member Turkey. Ankara closed the frontier in 1993 in solidarity with close Muslim ally Azerbaijan during the war over Nagorno-Karabakh.

    The mountain region threw off Azeri rule in the early 1990s with Armenian backing. A ceasefire was agreed in 1994 but a peace deal has never been agreed and Azerbaijan frequently threatens to take the territory back by force.

    Russia is part of a mediating group including France and the United States trying for the past 15 years, without success, to forge a peace deal.

    Although it has traditionally enjoyed close relations with Armenia, Russia has sought in recent years to develop ties with Azerbaijan as it vies with the West for access to energy reserves in the Caspian Sea.

  • New Russian-Armenian Defense Deal ‘Finalized’

    New Russian-Armenian Defense Deal ‘Finalized’

    Armenia -- Armenian and Russian army units at a joint military exercise, undatedArmenia — Armenian and Russian army units at a joint military exercise, undated

    13.08.2010
    Ruzanna Stepanian

    The Russian and Armenian governments have finalized a far-reaching agreement that will prolong and upgrade Russian military presence in Armenia, a diplomatic source in Yerevan said on Friday.

    The source told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that the two governments have worked out corresponding amendments to a 1995 treaty regulating the presence of a Russian military base in the country. They are likely to be signed during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Armenia next week, he said.

    The amendments will extend Russia’s basing rights by 24 years, to 2044, and upgrade the mission of its troops headquartered in Gyumri. The Interfax news agency reported on July 30 that a relevant “protocol” submitted to Medvedev by the Russian government makes clear that the troops will have not only “functions stemming from the interests of the Russian Federation,” but also “protect Armenia’s security together with Armenian Army units.” It also commits Russia to supplying its regional ally with “modern and compatible weaponry and special military hardware.”

    Some Armenian opposition figures and commentators have expressed concern about the planned changes to the treaty, saying that they could make Armenia even more dependent on Russia. Giro Manoyan, a senior member of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), said on Friday that the changes will be “worrisome” as long as the Armenian government has not convincingly explained their rationale.

    “My impression is that Russia has found an opportune moment to clinch from Armenia an extension of its basing rights in return for satisfying some of Armenia’s demands,” Manoyan told a news conference.

    But Razmik Zohrabian, a deputy chairman of President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK), defended the deal, saying that it will strengthen Armenia militarily and deter Azerbaijan from “unleashing a new war.” He claimed that the new mandate of the Russian base would oblige Moscow to support the Armenian side in case of renewed fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.

    “If war again breaks out between Karabakh and Azerbaijan, Armenia will naturally directly intervene, and if Armenia has the right to use the Russian base for its security, it means that Russia has to join the war on Armenia’s side,” Zohrabian told RFE/RL.

    Commenting the agreement’s reasons and timing, Zohrabian suggested that Moscow is seeking to secure its long-term military presence in Armenia and keep the latter from joining NATO in the foreseeable future. “Perhaps the Russians have a sense that Armenia may seek to join NATO,” he said. “And that is normal, if they want to retain and strengthen their influence in this region.”

    https://www.azatutyun.am/a/2127288.html
  • Armenia To Seek ‘Long-Range’ Weapons

    Armenia To Seek ‘Long-Range’ Weapons

    Armenia -- Surface-to-air missiles at a military base in Gyumri, undatedArmenia — Surface-to-air missiles at a military base in Gyumri, undated

    10.08.2010
    Sargis Harutyunyan

    Armenia plans to acquire long-range precision-guided weapons and will be ready to use them in possible armed conflicts with hostile neighbors, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian said on Tuesday.

    The announcement followed a meeting of an Armenian government commission on national security that tentatively approved two programs envisaging a modernization of the country’s Armed Forces. One of the documents deals with army weaponry, while the other details measures to develop the domestic defense industry.

    “These are extremely important programs,” Ohanian told journalists. “Their implementation will qualitatively improve the level of the Armed Forces in the short and medium terms.”

    “The two programs envisage both the acquisition of state-of-the-art weapons and their partial manufacturing by the local defense industry,” he said. “The main directions are the expansion of our long-range strike capacity and the introduction of extremely precise systems, which will allow us to minimize the enemy’s civilian casualties during conflicts.”

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    Armenia — Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian (R) and National Security Council Secretary Artur Baghdasarian chair a meeting of a government commission on defense, 10August 2010.

    “Their application will also allow us to thwart free enemy movements deep inside the entire theater of hostilities,” added the minister. He did not specify whether Yerevan will be seeking to have surface-to-surface missiles capable of hitting any target in Azerbaijan.

    The Armenian military is believed to be already equipped with short-range tactical missiles. But little is known about their type and technical characteristics. The army command gave a rare glimpse of such weaponry in September 2006 when it demonstrated new rockets with a firing range of up to 110 kilometers during a military parade in Yerevan.

    Ohanian did not deny that the modernization plan is connected with the persisting risk of another Armenian-Azerbaijani war for Nagorno-Karabakh. “You know what kind of a region we live in and how dependent we are during the escalation of conflicts,” he said. “We are therefore forced to do such work.”

    It was not immediately clear whether Yerevan’s desire to get hold of more powerful weapons is connected with a new Russian-Armenian military agreement expected to be signed soon. The agreement will reportedly take the form of significant changes in a 1995 treaty regulating the presence of a Russian military base in Armenia.

    Official Russian and Armenian sources have said that those changes would extend that presence and assign the base a greater role in ensuring Armenia’s security. A relevant Russian government document cited by the Interfax news agency late last month also makes clear that Moscow will commit itself to providing its South Caucasus ally with “modern and compatible weaponry and (special) military hardware.”

    Artur Baghdasarian, the secretary of Armenia’s National Security Council who chaired Tuesday’s meeting together with Ohanian, confirmed this last week. “There exist joint projects on this matter and we will be consistently implementing them,” he told the Regnum news agency.

    Earlier in July, Armenia and Russia announced plans to significantly step up cooperation between their defense industries after talks between their top security officials held in Yerevan. Baghdasarian reiterated on Tuesday the agreements reached during the “extremely important” talks envisage, among other things, the establishment of Russian-Armenian defense joint ventures.

    That was followed by Russian media reports that Moscow has agreed to sell sophisticated S-300 air-defense systems to Azerbaijan in a $300 million deal that could affect the balance of forces in the Karabakh conflict. Russian defense officials have made conflicting statements about the veracity of the information, adding to concerns expressed by Armenian pundits and politicians.

    Ohanian on Tuesday commented evasively on the possible S-300 sale. “I think that acquisition of any new weaponry will have a certain impact on the balance of forces [in the Karabakh conflict,] but want to remind that the S-300 systems are defensive systems,” he said. “At the same time, we can’t say we have information about their possible purchase [by Azerbaijan.]”

    https://www.azatutyun.am/a/2124090.html
  • Russian Patriarch Honors Armenia ‘Genocide’ Victims

    Russian Patriarch Honors Armenia ‘Genocide’ Victims

    2A8CB4B4 F3C0 4F4A 8E8C 96EE6E4AF637 w527 sCatholicos Garegin II (right) and Russian Patriarch Kirill lay a wreath at a monument to Russian soldiers killed in the Russo-Persian war in Yerevan.

    March 17, 2010
    YEREVAN — Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill has honored the victims of what Armenians consider the first genocide of the 20th century.

    During a visit to Yerevan, Kirill laid wreaths at Yerevan’s Armenian Genocide Monument, dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of Armenians who died in World War I-era mass killings by Turkish forces.

    Russia is among the countries that recognize the killings as genocide, a term Turkey rejects.

    Earlier, Kirill pledged to strengthen relations between the Russian and Armenian churches at the beginning of his three-day official visit.

    Kirill and Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, were greeted by hundreds of believers and led a joint prayer service at the Armenian church’s main cathedral in Echmiadzin, near Yerevan, shortly after Kirill’s arrival in the Armenian capital on March 16.

    “Every visitor to Armenia receives unforgettable impressions, looking at its main symbol, the holy Mount Ararat,” Kirill said in a speech.

    He added that Russian-Armenian relations have been “warm and friendly” ever since modern-day Armenia was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1828 as a result of a Russo-Persian war. He underlined the significance of that victory later in the day by visiting a memorial to Russian soldiers killed in that war.

    Garegin, for his part, spoke of the Armenian people’s “total love of and warm feelings of gratitude toward the Russian [Orthodox] Church, the great Russian people, and the Russian state.”

    A spokesman for Garegin, Vahram Melikian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the visit will “further strengthen” ties between the two churches, which both enjoy strong government support.

    Russian analysts say that unlike his predecessor, Aleksy II, who died in 2008, Kirill is active in the political arena and keen to reach out to other
    churches. Aleksei Makarkin, director of the Moscow-based Center for Political Technologies, likened him to experienced politicians who can “very quickly achieve their goals.”

    Makarkin told RFE/RL that the 63-year-old patriarch has a cordial rapport with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

    “Patriarch Kirill is undoubtedly an influential political figure in Russia, someone whose views the Kremlin takes into account,” he said.

    The Armenian Apostolic Church is the oldest state church in the world.

    https://www.rferl.org/a/Russian_Patriarch_Honors_Armenia_Genocide_Victims/1986689.html