ArmInfo. The initiative to send the Armenian mission to Syria belongs exclusively to Yerevan. The Deputy Minister of Defense Gabriel Balayan assured about this in an interview with Radio Liberty.
"Russia provided only logistic assistance in this issue. The RA Consulate in Aleppo assisted in the deployment of the mission," the Deputy Minister said. Meanwhile, earlier, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that Armenia and Russia are carrying out an important joint humanitarian mission, after which a decision was announced to send a mission to Syria.
Responding to the charges of the former head of the Armenian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Armen Ashotyan that the mission was sent to Syria without signing the relevant international treaty regulating the activities and purpose of the mission, the terms of its stay in Syria, Balayan said: "The issue is regulated by the signed between Armenia and Syria interstate treaty of 2001 ". In response to the remark that, in the opinion of many experts, sending a mission to Syria will have a negative impact on Armenia's relations with the West and some Arab countries, the Deputy Minister stressed: "In making the decision, all the pros and cons were taken into account." At the same time, Balayan found it difficult to indicate the duration of the mission's stay in Syria: " The mission will remain in Syria for several months, then, depending on its effectiveness, a corresponding decision will be made."
On February 8, a group of Armenian specialists in humanitarian demining, medical personnel and ensuring the safety of the specialists themselves, in a total of 83 people, arrived in the city of Aleppo of the Syrian Arab Republic to provide humanitarian specialized assistance to the Syrian people. According to the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, the Armenian specialists will carry out humanitarian activities related to humanitarian demining, mine awareness of the population, the provision of medical assistance in Aleppo, exclusively outside the zone of combat operations. It should be noted that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at a meeting with his Armenian counterpart David Tonoyan in Moscow thanked the latter for the humanitarian assistance to Syria, stressing that it was Armenia that was the first to respond to the call to support peaceful citizens of the Arab Republic.