ARMENIAN PEACEKEEPERS ONE MORE YEAR IN IRAQ. ITS RESULTS

Panorama.am
23:08 03/12/2007

Today Mikael Harutunyan, Defense Minister had a speech in the
Parliament and announced about the president’s proposal to leave
Armenian peacekeepers one more year in Iraq. The Minister said that
Armenian peacekeeping forces went to Iraq in 2005 and 276 Armenian
soldiers serve there. According to him there are no victims till now.

Viktor Dallakyan, an independent deputy asked the minister what would
happen to Armenia when the democrats gain the elections in the USA
and took out the troops from Iraq. "The question will be discussed
when a democrat candidate is elected in America. But I am sure that
it is not right to take out the troops from Iraq, as the questions,
which are solved by the peacekeepers, are human and they resist civil
war start," answered the minister. V. Dallakyan was also interested
in the following: what the participation in such big projects will
give Armenia and how the main problems of Armenian nation will be
solved. According to the deputy Armenia being a small country has to
participate in those big programs, especially in "Iraq Company".

Dallakyan said that he worries that the existence of Armenian
peacekeeping forces in Iraq will harm the adoption of 106th
resolution. "Turkey invaded Iraq; the USA tries to create Kurd
country in Iraq and the delay of the resolution adoption lies under
Armenian-American, Kurd-Turkish, and American-Kurd context," announced
the independent deputy and continued that they want Armenia to be a
democratic country, not an organized one.

Only the "Republican" and "Prosperous Armenia" parties voted for
the proposal.