RUSSO-ARMENIAN ARMY EXERCISE IN SOUTH-EASTERN ARMENIA
By Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
September 13, 2005 Tuesday

A military exercise to check the combat readiness of the
Russian-Armenian group of troops, formed on decision of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), are being currently held for the
tenth year running on the Marshal Bagramyan training ground in the
south-eastern part of Armenia. Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
and CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha will watch the exercise.

Taking part in it are units of the Armenian Armed Forces and troops
manning the Russian military base in the Armenian republic. Their
coordination is patent proof of the effectiveness of Russo-Armenian
cooperation. However, Moscow and Yerevan have repeatedly declared
that this military cooperation is not spearheaded at any other country.

The armed forces of Armenia were formed in 1991-1992 after the
republic’s independence was proclaimed. Officers of the former Soviet
army made up its backbone. Today, the majority of Armenia’s future
officers are being trained at Russian military schools. Armenia is
taking active part in the work of the CSTO and of the CIS Joint
Anti-Aircraft Defence System. Armenian soldiers had earned high
praise at the recent CIS anti-aircraft defence exercises on the
Ashuluk training ground in Russia’s Astrakhan Region.

The 102nd military base of the Russian Defence Ministry is deployed
in Armenia on the basis of several bilateral inter-state agreements
and is in high favour among the local population. It is the successor
of the Leninakan motorised infantry division of the Seventh Guards
Army of the Trans-Caucasian Military District. The main part of the
base is in the town of Gyumri (former Leninakan) and is subordinated
to the North Caucasian Military District’s Group of Russian Troops
in Transcaucasia. It is manned by five thousand officers and men.

The Armenian authorities regard the presence of the Russian military
base and of Russian border guards in the republic as an important
guarantee of national security and regional stability.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress