ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
September 22, 2004 Wednesday

Armenia military to go to Iraq only after parliamentary approval

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Armenia’s military medics and army engineers will go to Iraq only
after the national parliament endorses a decision to send them there,
Foreign Minister Vartan Oksakian said here Wednesday.

“Armenia has no plans of military presence in Iraq, but it would like
to contribute to the humanitarian operation,” he said.

In the next few days, a group of experts will go to the area where
the Armenian unit will be deployed in Iraq.

The unit to be sent there is a motorized company including 50 medics,
sappers, and drivers.

Many Armenian political parties believe that dispatching whatever
military to Iraq is totally inadmissible. They warn about the bad
consequences that the move may have for a 20,000-strong Armenian
community in that country.