ATHENS – After being defeated by Azerbaijan in the 2020 conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region and surrounding territories, Armenia has signed a military cooperation agreement with Greece.
The agreement was signed by Levon Ayvazyan, the head of the Department for Defense Policy and International Cooperation under the Armenian Defense Ministry, and Vasilios Tsami, the Director of the International Relations Department of the Greek General Staff, according to Azer News.
The cooperation plan includes 21 events, with 15 planned to be held in Greece and 6 in Armenia. The program features joint drills and an exchange of experiences among special forces, air defense units, cyber unit training, and peacekeeping forces, the report stated.
A component of the agreement will involve cooperation between the intelligence communities of the two countries. Before the current easing of tensions, Greece was at times close to a conflict point with Turkey, which supplied Azerbaijan with drones that proved decisive against Armenia in battle.
Greece is one of Armenia’s major military partners. A similar document, the Tripartite Defense Cooperation Program for 2022-2023, was signed between Cyprus, Greece, and Armenia on August 31, 2021, the report noted.
During a conversation with the Greek Ambassador to Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev expressed his concerns about Greece working with Armenia, stating that it “poses an existential threat to Azerbaijan because, by using these weapons, they kill our military servicemen and civilians.”