US-SPONSORED BORDER GUARD TRAINING CENTRE OPENS IN ARMENIA

Mediamax news agency
22 Mar 06

Yerevan, 22 March: A training centre of the Armenian border troops,
renovated with money provided by the US government, opened in Yerevan
today.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, US ambassador to Armenia John
Evans stressed the importance of the centre in ensuring the reliable
protection of the Armenian borders and preventing the illegal
transportation of dangerous cargoes and smuggling and trafficking,
Mediamax reports.

According to the diplomat, “the operation of the centre meets the
interests of the Armenian people and the international community”.

The USA invested a total of 214,000 dollars in the renovation of the
centre’s building.

Armen Abramyan, commander of the Armenian border troops, said that
the USA has been supplying Armenian border guards with transport and
technical control facilities, state-of-the-art radio stations and
computers since December 2001.

The building of the Bagratashen checkpoint on the Armenian-Georgian
border was opened in May 2005 with the assistance of the US
government. The construction of a barracks at the Gogavan checkpoint
on the border with Georgia will be completed in the near future.

An official statement released by the US embassy said that “several
groups of Armenian border guards have already attended one- and
two-month courses in preparation for replacing Russian border guards
at Zvartnots airport.” At the same time, Armen Abramyan said that
not all of the Russian border guards at the airport will be replaced,
Mediamax reports.

Mediamax recalls that under bilateral agreements, Armenian and Russian
border guards are jointly protecting Armenia’s border with Turkey
and Iran. Russian, not Armenian, border guards have been working at
the checkpoint Armenia at Zvartnots international airport in the past
few years.

Mediamax notes that the head of the Russian Federal Security Service’s
Border Directorate in Armenia, Lt-Gen Sergey Bondarev, said in January
2006 that Armenian and Russian border guards started to serve jointly
at the checkpoint Armenia. Bondarev said that “joint work has already
proved its efficiency”.