MILITARIST ROW
by Sergey Rasov
Politkom.ru
Jan 12 2009
Russia
The "gas war" between Ukraine and Russia has eclipsed another row,
which is topic No 1 in the Azerbaijani news media and has a direct
bearing on Russia. Azerbaijan is serving up without reference to
sources, but as an incontrovertible fact, the information that the
Russians transferred to the Armenians near 800m- dollar-worth arms at
the end of last year. In addition, Azerbaijani Internet publications
maintain that the weapons were transferred from RF [Russian Federation]
Military Base 102 located in Gyumri. The list of the arms to be
transferred was allegedly signed by Lieutenant-General Vyacheslav
Golovchenko, deputy commander of the North Caucasus Military District
for armament.
It includes 21 T-72 tanks, 27 BMP-2s, 12 70/80 APCs, 5 BREM-2s (based
on the BMP-1) 4 ZSU 23-4 Shilka missiles, various Strela missiles, 875
cases of F-1 and RGD-5 grenades, 1,050 cases of RKG-3/3 EM anti-tank
grenades, 7,897 variously designated munitions (122mm RS, 152mm 2S3,
122mm D-30, and such), 120 GP-25 40mm underbarrel grenade launchers,
2,846 5.45mm AK-74s and AKS-74s; 1,472 7.62mm AKM and AKMS, 103 NB-8
night binoculars, TNT blocks, various mines (TM 62 M/P, OZM-72,
PMN), BM-37 mortars, 9 9K51 BM-21 Grad MLRS, 10 152mm 1S Akatsiya
self-propelled artillery mounts (based on the T-55), 14 122mm S21
Gvozdika self-propelled artillery mounts (based on the MT-LBU),
five 100mm MT-12r Rapira guns, 210 3 M9MZ Kub missiles, and other arms.
The Azerbaijani news media recall also that there was in recent
history the fact of Russia supplying Armenia with 1 billion dollars
of arms in 1996. True, there is other information to the effect that
the arms were not transferred to the Armenian armed forces at all,
they were put at the disposal of Russian servicemen in Georgia.
Official comment from the Azerbaijanis is restrained. Eldar Sabiroglu,
director of the press service of Azerbaijan’s MoD, said that "we
need to conduct a serious investigation, and after this it may be
possible to say something". As distinct from him, Geydar Dzhemal,
chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia, said plainly that it
is Russia that is preventing a resolution of the Karabakh conflict
"in order to put pressure on Azerbaijan."
Azerbaijani deputies, political scientists, and journalists are
speaking in roughly the same key. They make no secret of their
negative attitude towards this information. Azerbaijan’s corps of
deputies, for example, characterizes in unison the "transfer" of arms
to Armenia as an "international scandal" and is demanding that Russia
withdraw as co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group for a settlement of
the Karabakh problem.
Aydin Mirzazada, deputy chairman of parliament’s defence and security
commission, said that "we demand that these arms be returned and that
Armenia be demilitarized." Elxan Nuriyev, director of the Strategic
Research Centre in the office of the president, believes that "the
information on the allocation by Russia to its military contingent in
Armenia of 800m-dollar-worth arms is directly linked with the processes
surrounding Georgia and the signed American-Georgian charter. The
militarization of the South Caucasus would have a negative influence
on stability in the region," Nuriyev observed.
Azerbaijani experts call attention to two points, in any event.
First, this does not jibe with the Moscow Declaration, to which
President Dmitriy Medvedev appended his signature also. Second, such a
step of Russia’s cannot be called friendly towards Azerbaijan. That is,
Moscow is supporting Armenia, is not interested in a just resolution
of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, and is upsetting stability in
the region.
It is no surprise, therefore, that, following a brief lull, loud
voices are once again being heard in Azerbaijan to the effect that
the country needs to "move towards the West since only this could be
a guarantee of its security and future development".
Azerbaijan is also recalling, not without sarcasm, Moscow’s vigorous
indignation at the sale of weapons to Georgia by Ukraine and charging
Russia with a policy of double standards. And one further curious piece
of information: the Ministry of Defence of Armenia has officially
announced that it plans reforms in the army in 2009… [ellipsis
as published]
Against this background the statement of Sinan Ogan, director of
Turkey’s Centre for Strategic Studies, that the West wants to hook
Armenia up to the Nabucco project, via which gas will be supplied,
from Azerbaijan included, would appear extremely improbable. This
project cannot be implemented without Azerbaijan, and its reaction
to the participation of "militarists" is entirely predictable.
Moscow’s silence on this delicate subject, though, is also
unproductive. It would evidently be correct were officials of the
RF MoD [Russian Federation’s Ministry of Defence] to clarify the
situation, and Russia were not to lose friends, of whom few remain
as it is.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
