RUSSIA STREGTHENS ITS MILITARY PRESENCE IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net - We shall remind that a part of the personal staff and technique of the Russian military base in Vasiani has been sent to Armenia earlier. The process of the withdrawal of troops from the territory of Georgia is going on. There are only few military bases in Azerbaijan. Several years later the 102nd military base stationed in Armenia will be the only for post of Russian troops in the Southern Caucasus.

The military presence of Russia in the Caucasus is limited in the sense of the space but not of the strength. The step-by-step exit of Russian troops from Georgia and Azerbaijan is being totally compensated due to supplementation of arsenals in Armenia. The technical equipment of the united Russian-Armenian group created in autumn last year allows to be tranquil about the safety of the southern borders of the "common defense space" formed by the member-countries of the Collective security Treaty. Plus the strong agreement base - only in last few years about 20 bilateral agreements and treaties regulating the strengthening partnership in military sphere were signed between Armenia and Russia.

Following the negotiations with the Defense Minister of Armenia Serzh Sarkisian held this October, the Minister of Defense of Russia Sergey Ivanon informed about the plans connected with strengthening of the united group of troops in Armenia. The political commentators interpreted these words as an intention to transfer to Armenia part of arsenals of military bases stationed in Akhalkalaki and Batumi. However, evidently, the Minister meant something more than the re-stationing of the military techniques from one base to another. "We are interested not to limit our presence on the territory of Armenia to only a military base," Sergey Ivanov said. A month and a half later during the visit of the Prime Minster of Russia Mikhail Kasyanov to Yerevan, two secret agreements connected with military and military-technical cooperation were signed.

In Azerbaijan the fact of signing of those agreements generated a public excitement. In Baku they are always very vulnerable about the strengthening of the military partnership of Yerevan and Moscow. The 102nd Russian military base stationed in Gyumri is being comprehended by Azerbaijan as a fact hindering to the implementation of the aggressive plans connected with military operation against Karabakh. The Speaker of the Milli Mejlis of Azerbaijan Murtuz Aleskerov, urging his compatriots to settle peacefully the Karabakh problem, explained his words not only by insufficient preparedness of the Azerbaijani army but also by the fact that on the territory of Armenia there are Russian military bases which will not remain indifferent. The Secretary General of the Security Council of Turkey, General Tunji Kilinj, understanding that a new military operation will not bring success to Azerbaijan, said: "Remember that Russia stands behind Armenia".

Not long ago, answering the journalists, the head of the general staff of the military forces of Russia, army General Anatoly Kwashnin ruled out the possibility of the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression against Armenia and Karabakh.

According to him, as long as Russia has partnership obligations towards Armenia, such thing is impossible. This position of the general allows understanding, what was the Russian defense minister meaning saying that "the united Russian-Armenian group of troops stabilizes the military-political situation in the Caucasus".