Armenian defence minister justifies dispatch of troops to Iraq

Hayots Ashkarh, Yerevan
9 Dec 04

Excerpt from Vaan Vardanyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Hayots
Ashkarh on 9 December headlined “Armenia has no right to stay out of
this process”

An interview with Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan.

[Hayots Ashkarh correspondent] Mr Sarkisyan, the Constitutional Court
has adopted a positive decision on sending troops to Iraq. When will
it be submitted to the National Assembly for ratification?

[Serzh Sarkisyan] It does not depend on me. There is a regulation
according to which the president of the country sends a bill to the
parliament for ratification. I think this will happen soon.

[Correspondent] Are you sure that the National Assembly will ratify
it?

[Sarkisyan] Nothing can be guaranteed. But I think that a great
majority in the parliament are people who stand for our national
interests and they will not make a negative decision.

[Correspondent] But Ukraine wants to withdraw its 1,500-strong
military contingent from Iraq, but it does not have money for
that. There is a similar mood in Britain as well. That is, some
countries seem to have changed their mind on sending troops to
Iraq. Is it correct that Armenia is going to send its military
contingent to Iraq?

[Sarkisyan] First, how do you know that they have changed their mind?
Second, at the time these countries sent troops to Iraq, the situation
was no better than today. That is, one should conclude that the
existing situation in Iraq is not the reason for this mood. In that
case we do not have the right to be guided by other countries’
interests.

[Passage omitted: Sarkisyan says how many countries and in what way
take part in Iraq’s restoration]

We have no right to be sidelined from this process.

[Correspondent] Is Kazakhstan’s military contingent in Iraq a
supporting force?

[Sarkisyan] Yes, it is. Just the same way as in our case. Today I
mentioned in the Constitutional Court that in case of joining the
relevant memorandum we shall mention reservations that should be
applied to our contingent. They are different. For instance, our
contingent may only take part in defence and humanitarian
actions. Moreover, we cannot take part in any actions together with
the Azerbaijani units.

[Correspondent] Moreover, our contingent may not be deployed in the
same place with the Azerbaijanis.

[Sarkisyan] Certainly. We have chosen in advance where our contingent
will be deployed in case of going to Iraq.

[Correspondent] There are opinions that if the contingent is
dispatched to Iraq, in this way Armenia will stress that it is
pro-Western, shrugging off Russia.

[Sarkisyan] This is not so. Those who think so are not aware of the
processes taking place in the world. They simply try to impose their
view on other people. If they learn the list of the countries that
help restoration of Iraq, they will see that Russia is among them as
well. Why do these people try to make any action look like
contradicting Russia or the USA? I am sure that such approaches will
not benefit our country.

[Correspondent] People worry that by this step we may put at risk our
Armenian community of Iraq.

[Sarkisyan] This is why we approach this problem very seriously. But I
can ask: if we do not send our contingent to Iraq, does it mean that
their attitude towards our community will be better? Everybody knows
that the first church blown up in Iraq was an Armenian one. That
happened when there was no word in Armenia about joining the
coalition. I simply see no connection, though different ways out are
possible. But I am absolutely sure that if Armenia does not join in
and stay out of this process, which involves 94 countries of the
world, it will be simply unclear.