ARMENIAN TROOPS IN IRAQ AGAIN ROTATED
By Hovannes Shoghikian and Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
July 18 2007
Armenia sent 46 non-combat troops to Iraq on Wednesday in a regular
rotation of its small military contingent that joined the U.S.-led
occupation force there more than two years ago.
The army truck drivers, demining experts, medics and other military
personnel will replace the same number of their comrades who have
completed their six month tour of duty in Iraq and will be flown back
to Yerevan later this month. The Armenian contingent is part of a
Polish-led multinational division deployed in mainly Shia-populated
areas south of Baghdad.
"What your detachment is doing is a continuation of a fight for
survival that characterizes the modern history of the Armenian people,"
Colonel-General Seyran Ohanian, chief of the Armenian army’s General
Staff, told the departing troops during a farewell ceremony.
"Your mission demonstrates that Armenia can not only defend itself
but contribute to global security."
Ohanian went on to compare Armenian soldiers’ service in Iraq and
Kosovo with Armenian "feats" during the continuing military conflict
with Azerbaijan. "Your battalion has successfully performed its tasks
in Iraq and Kosovo, and I believe that, if necessary, we can do so
in other conflict zones as well," he said, referring to the special
army unit that provides troops to the first-ever Armenian military
missions abroad.
The head of the Armenian Defense Ministry’s foreign relations
department, Major-General Mikael Melkonian, announced in May that
Yerevan is considering increasing the number of its peace-keeping
troops in Kosovo and joining the NATO-led military mission in
Afghanistan. He said it is currently discussing the issue with the
governments of Britain and Greece.
Ohanian also did not rule out the possibility of an Armenian deployment
in Afghanistan and a troop increase in Kosovo. "The Defense Ministry
has made no such decision yet," he told reporters.
Earlier this year, the U.S. military donated a mobile field hospital to
the Armenian peacekeeping battalion. The then U.S. charge d’affaires
in Yerevan, Anthony Godfrey, said during its inauguration in February
that the assistance is meant to facilitate "future Armenian military
deployments with coalition or NATO forces" in various conflict zones
and Afghanistan in particular.
On Tuesday, the government of Germany, a major contributor to the NATO
force in Afghanistan, similarly donated nine tons of medical equipment
to the Armenian military. A senior Defense Ministry official said the
"humanitarian assistance" will enable Armenia to deploy and fully
equip another military hospital "in field conditions."