ANKARA: Armenia Sends Special Military Team to Iraq

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Dec 27 2004

Armenia Sends Special Military Team to Iraq
JTW (27 December 2004)

Armenian Defense Minister Serge Sarkisyan said that Armenia would
send 46 military experts to Iraq to operate as part of the Polish
contingent. The minister said that the U.S. command and the Polish
division would arrange logistics support, medical services, housing
and utilities for the Armenian experts. The Armenian Defense Ministry
received approval from parliament to
send the experts to Iraq for a year.

There is an Armenian minority group in Iraq, and according to the
Iraq experts, Armenians in Iraq will be under threat after the
decision. The Iraqi resistance groups see the states that send
soldiers to Iraq `hostile’ and make attacks against these countries
as seen in the Madrid Case.

Armenia is a relatively poor and the country has been suffering from
economic catastrophes. Analyzers say the decision was taken in order
to attract the American support for Armenia in the Caucasus:

`Armenia takes a high risk by sending military peoples to Iraq. Iraqi
militants may attack Armenian targets in Armenia and around the
world. Apart from this kind of attacks, Yerevan must consider the
safety of the Armenian minority in Iraq. The arrival of Armenian
military people to Iraq will put the Armenians in Iraq at risk’ said
Dr. James Trivar, international politics expert. According to Trivar,
the Armenian military team could be perceived as a contribution to
occupation of Iraq by US led countries.