Saturday,
Armenia To Mull Buying U.S. Military Equipment In Case Of ‘Good Offer’
• Sisak Gabrielian
Armenia -- Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks to journalists,
Yerevan, 27Oct2018
Armenia is open to discussing a possible purchase of military equipment from
the United States if there is a good offer, according to the acting prime
minister of the South Caucasus nation that has allied relations with Russia.
Visiting Armenia on October 25, U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security
adviser John Bolton said the issue of possible sales of American military
equipment was also addressed during his meeting with the acting head of the
Armenian government, Nikol Pashinian.
During an exclusive interview with RFE/RL that day Armenian Service Director
Harry Tamrazian asked the senior White House official a question about possible
alternatives for post-Soviet nations in a region where Russia still remains a
big player in security terms. Among such “alternatives” Bolton mentioned the
area of weapons sales.
“We have restrictions Congress has imposed on the United States in terms of
[weapons] sales to Azerbaijan and Armenia because of the conflict [in
Nagorno-Karabakh]. But there are exceptions to that. And as I said to the prime
minister, if it’s a question of buying Russian military equipment versus buying
U.S. military equipment, we’d prefer the later. We think our equipment is
better than the Russians’ anyway. So we want to look at that. And I think it
increases Armenia’s options when it’s not entirely dependent on one major
power. I understand the geographical situation and the historical antecedents
to all of this. But I think this is a time to be optimistic that Armenia can
emerge more on the world stage,” Trump’s national security advisor said, in
particular.
This statement elicited mixed reactions from political parties in Armenia.
Vahram Baghdasarian, the leader of the former ruling Republican Party of
Armenia (HHK) parliamentary faction, described such statements as
“unacceptable”, claiming that they incite a war between the parties to the
conflict. The senior member of the HHK led by former president Serzh Sarkisian
referred to the principle of prohibiting arms supplies to warring parties.
“This escalates the situation and aggravates the negotiating process,”
Baghdasarian said on Friday.
Asked by media on Saturday whether Yerevan is actually going to purchase
military equipment from the United States, Armenia’s acting Prime Minister
Pashinian said: “The [Armenian] government is not constrained by anything. If
there is an offer from the United States that is good for us, we will discuss
it.”
So far, Russia has supplied weapons in large numbers to both Armenia and
Azerbaijan despite being one of the international co-sponsors of peace talks
between the two countries on ways to resolve the protracted conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh. It has done so amid criticism that arms supplies increase the
risk of fighting in the disputed region where despite sporadic skirmishes
relative truce has held since 1994.
Armenia is a member of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization,
a defense pact of six former Soviet nations, and is, therefore, entitled to
purchase Russian weapons at knock-down prices.
After talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in September,
Pashinian said that Russia will continue to supply weapons to Armenia. “We
agreed that supplies of Russian weapons will be continued routinely,” he told
the Kommersant newspaper.
Russia provided Armenia with a fresh $100 million loan for buying more Russian
weapons at discounted prices as recently as October 2017.
Meanwhile, Russia has also supplied an estimated $5 billion worth of various
weapons to Azerbaijan in the last several years. Some of the deadly Russian
weapons delivered to Baku were used by Azerbaijan’s military against ethnic
Armenian forces during the brief hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh in April 2016.
This fact drew an angry reaction among Armenians as protests were held in front
of the Russian embassy in Yerevan at that time.
Russia has insisted all along that while it supplies arms to Azerbaijan, it
also maintains the military balance by delivering weapons to Armenia at
discount prices.
Some analysts, however, have argued that Russian arms deliveries to Baku tilt
the military balance in favor of Azerbaijan, making the prospect of an all-out
war in Nagorno-Karabakh more likely.
Armen Rustamian, the leader of the parliamentary faction of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), believes that Armenia today is
behind Azerbaijan in its military buildup. “Aggressions and hostilities start
when the balance is disturbed… And if in his statement Mr. Bolton meant that in
order to maintain the balance Armenia should also have other types of weapons
that restore this balance, then, of course, it can be welcomed, because it is
very important for us that we have a balance in terms of the types of weapons
and arsenal with Azerbaijan,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am)
on Friday.
Asked whether he thought the prospect of American arms supplies to Armenia
would anger Russia, the ARF lawmaker said: “I think that Russia should
understand a simple logic – mediators either do not supply weapons to either
side or do it so as not to disturb the balance.”
Earlier this week, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), which is
the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots organization,
said it will continue to press for strict enforcement of Section 907 of the
Freedom Support Act that restricts U.S. aid – including military assistance –
to Azerbaijan.
In a statement published on its Facebook page the ANCA, in particular, said:
[U.S. national security advisor] Bolton expressed openness to U.S. arms sales
to Armenia, which – almost certainly – would happen in the context of such
sales to Azerbaijan. The danger here is that Azerbaijan, given the size of its
military budget, can afford significantly more advanced U.S. arms than Armenia
- leading to imbalances both on the battlefield and in terms of political
relationships.”
Along with Russia and France, the United States co-heads the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group, which advances international
efforts to help find a negotiated peace in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Negotiations conducted by Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders with the group’s
mediation have failed to produce a lasting settlement of the conflict so far.
Armenian Police Stop Grenade-Wielding Man From Entering Government Building
• Tatev Danielian
Armenia - The government building in Yerevan
Police in Armenia have arrested a man who allegedly tried to make his way into
a government building in central Yerevan armed with a hand-grenade.
National Security Service officers were questioning the as-yet-unidentified
person late on Saturday, sources told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
No one was hurt in the incident, RFE/RL’s correspondent reports from the scene.
Talking to RFE/RL, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian confirmed that the man
was armed with a grenade.
He described the person as a middle-aged man and said he appeared mentally
unstable.
Motives behind the incident remain unclear.
According to the RFE/RL correspondent, the situation around the government
building remained calm despite the incident.
An official said everything is normal inside the government office and “there
is no need for panic.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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