WPS Agency, Russia
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
October 22, 2008 Wednesday
STRATEGIC RELATIONS IN NEED OF CORRECTION
New Russian military bases as the talk of the day in Yerevan on the
eve of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit
by Yuri Simonjan
MOSCOW IS TRYING TO DO AWAY WITH WHATEVER MARS THE RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN
STRATEGIC RELATIONS; President Dmitry Medvedev’s official two-day
visit to Armenia begins today.
It is time presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Serj Sarkisjan met because
the Russian-Armenian relations are no longer as cloudless and
unproblematic as they used to be. Most of the friction comes down to
consequences of the war in South Ossetia. Something has to be done
away about it to retain the relations both Moscow and Yerevan regard
as strategic.
The Kremlin has some questions concerning Yerevan’s stand on the
matter of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Armenia condemned the Georgian
aggression at the summit of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization but backed Georgian territorial integrity later on. It
happened during Sarkisjan’s visit to Tbilisi in late
September. Armenian media outlets assume that Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov flew over to Yerevan on October 3 precisely in order to
elucidate the Armenian stand on the matter. He had probably failed and
therefore made a statement in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta
several days later that Armenian political scientists appraised as "a
cold shower" for Yerevan. Elaborating on the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, Lavrov said there were two or three issues yet that had to
be addressed. "Being one of the three international brokers, Russia is
of the opinion that the settlement is within grasp," the minister
said. "When the Karabakh settlement is a fact of life, Turkey will be
prepared to help Armenia with restoration of normal contacts with the
rest of the world through the establishment of official diplomatic
relations between Ankara and Yerevan of course."
Newspaper Aikakan Jamanak (Armenian Time) meanwhile reported a never
announced visit of the Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to
Armenia. Citing some sources it claimed could be relied, the newspaper
stated that Serdyukov and his Armenian counterpart Sejran Oganjan
discussed the withdrawal of the Armenian army from the Azerbaijani
territories adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian Defense
Ministry issued immediate – and vehement – denials, but all of Yerevan
is convinced that there is no smoke without fire.
Arthur Agabekjan, Chairman of the Defense and National Security
Commission of the parliament and former deputy defense minister,
called territorial concessions to Azerbaijan unacceptable in the
opinion of Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutjun. "The lands around
Nagorno-Karabakh are of paramount importance from the standpoint of
security," Agabekjan said and suggested that Russia might install new
military bases (in addition to the one in Gyumri) in Armenia and a
base of peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Karabakh region itself. The
lawmaker emphasized that it was only possible on the basis of a new
agreement between Armenia and Russia but observers immediately
suggested that the Armenian regular army might be withdrawn from the
territories adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh if the Russians helped
Yerevan with national security and deployed its peacekeepers in the
self-proclaimed republic. Colonel Sejran Shakhsuvarjan of the Armenian
Defense Ministry Press Service denied knowledge of any such plans when
approached for comments. His Russian opposite numbers offered but a
curt "no comment".
Stepan Grigorjan of the Center for Globalization (Yerevan) admitted
that there was a chance that the establishment of military bases in
Armenia and the deployment of a contingent of peacekeepers in
Nagorno-Karabakh might be discussed. "The former is a matter for
bilateral tanks. Experts meanwhile say that the military base in
Gyumri is powerful enough to obviate the necessity of other bases,"
the political scientist said. "As for peacekeepers, that’s more
difficult. Should Yerevan and Moscow decide that this is what they
want and launch these processes, the matter will need more than their
willingness and desire to be pulled off. Azerbaijan will certainly
raise objections. Besides, the Armenian authorities themselves are
unlikely to want it…"
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, October 20, 2008, p. 5