ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
April 14, 2007 Saturday 01:23 PM EST

Armenia says Russian border guards withdrawal out of question

The commander of Armenia’s border guard troops, Lieutenant-General
Sergei Bondarev said the question of how long Russian border guards
will stay in Armenia is not even considered.

In his view, Russian border guards have a “stabilising effect” on
the situation on the Armenian-Turkish border.

According to the general, the 15 years during which Russian border
guards have been protecting the 335-kilometre border with Turkey have
been “reliable and secure”.

Border guards detained about 100 border regime violators in the first
quarter of 2007 and more than 450 in 2006.

Russian border guards have established working contacts with the
Turkish colleagues. “Our cooperation has helped to reduce the number
of border incidents and violations considerably,” the general said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress