Armenian Generals Unhappy With Iraq Deployment
By Gevorg Stamboltsian 09/09/2004 09:12

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Sept 9 2004

Two senior Armenian army generals have indicated their opposition to
Yerevan’s plans to join the U.S.-led occupation force in Iraq with
a small unit of non-combat troops by the end of this year.

“I am not delighted with the decision to send our troops there and
the war in general,” Lieutenant-General Yuri Khachaturov, a deputy
minister of defense, told reporters late on Tuesday. “Because of
that the Armenian community [in Iraq] and Armenians in general could
have problems in the future.” Khachaturov’s concerns were echoed
on Wednesday by Major-General Enrico Apriamov, deputy chief of staff
of Armenia’s Armed Forces. “I can’t comment on this because there is
an issue of peace keeping and an issue of aggression,” he said. “As
peacekeepers, we are ready to perform duties to our people for the
sake of our homeland.”

Asked whether he believes the U.S. invasion of Iraq was aggression,
Apriamov replied, “This question should be put to President George
Bush. [He should be asked] what he meant by sending troops to Iraq. I
am a military officer and am against war.”

The comments are a rare expression of personal views by members of
the Armenian army’s top brass and expose its serious misgivings about
the deployment plans reaffirmed by President Robert Kocharian during
a visit to Poland on Monday.

Kocharian formally offered his Polish counterpart Aleksander
Kwasniewski to send some 50 military doctors, sappers and truck drivers
to south central Iraq administered by a Polish-led multinational
division. Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian accompanying Kocharian
argued that considers itself a “part of the European family” and feels
“obliged to participate in the efforts to assure security.”

The offer was accepted by and drew praise from the Polish government.
“Such decisions are very difficult, but necessary at the time of the
joint struggle against terrorism,” Kwasniewski said.

Lieutenant-General Artur Aghabekian, another deputy defense minister
seen as Sarkisian’s right-hand man, told RFE/RL late last week that
a team of Armenian military officials will visit Iraq this month to
prepare for the arrival of the Armenian troops. He said they will join
the Polish-led contingent “at the end of the autumn or the beginning
of the winter.”

Khachaturov claimed that the Armenian parliament may still block
the deployment by refusing to ratify it. His comments also give more
weight to fears that Armenia’s accession to the U.S.-led “coalition
of the willing” could make thousands of ethnic Armenians living in
Iraq a potential target of attacks by anti-American insurgents.