ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 15, 2005 Friday 3:26 PM Eastern Time

34 Armenian peacekeepers go on mission to Kosovo

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Thirty-four Armenian peacekeepers went on mission to Kosovo on
Friday.

“Armenia is increasingly becoming involved in the provision of
Euro-Atlantic and international security and stability,” Deputy
Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Artur Agabekian said. “Now that we have
achieved lasting peace with the international support, we cannot stay
indifferent to people who need peace in various corners of the
planet,” he said.

Armenian peacekeepers “are strengthening sustainable development of
their fatherland and its wish to live in peace and accord, with their
participation in the humanitarian mission and a small contribution to
international peace,” he said.

This is the second Kosovo mission for 18 servicemen. They had already
been there in February-September 2004.

Armenian servicemen, who had been stationed in Kosovo since last
September, returned to Yerevan on Thursday night. The platoon was on
mission near an Albanian village, and there was a Serb township
nearby.

A memorandum on the participation of an Armenian motorized infantry
unit in the Kosovo peacekeeping operation within a Greek battalion
was signed in Yerevan on September 3, 2003, and ratified by the
Armenian parliament on December 13, 2003.

Some of the Armenian peacekeepers, who have been in Kosovo, are
getting ready for a mission in Iraq, Agabekian said. He said the
Armenian Defense Ministry administration has permanent contact with
46 Armenian medics, sappers and drivers in Iraq. Armenian medics give
aid to local residents and peacekeepers, he said.