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Chechnya: Armenia foothold for Russian air raids on Chechnya

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  • Chechnya: Armenia foothold for Russian air raids on Chechnya

    Chechenpress web site, Tbilisi, in Russian
    9 Mar 04

    Armenia foothold for Russian air raids on Chechnya - web site


    7 March: Against the backdrop of sluggish talks on the pull-out of
    Russian military bases from Georgia, the Kremlin is constantly
    reinforcing its military-technical presence in Armenia. This trend
    has existed since the time of Gorbachev and Yeltsin and is gaining
    momentum under Putin.

    Nowadays, the Kremlin's strongest military-technical grouping in the
    South Caucasus is concentrated in Armenia.

    The 426th air force unit and the 520th air force commandant's office
    have comfortably settled in Yerevan (Erebuni). It is the same air
    force structure that regularly raids Chechnya and easily returns to
    the base, remaining out of the sight of international observers. It
    is time for observers to pay close attention to this, for raids on
    Chechnya from a neighbouring country run counter to all international
    accords.

    Apart from this, the 127th motorized infantry division, the 124th and
    128th motorized infantry regiments, the 992nd artillery regiment, the
    116th tank battalion, a separate logistics battalion, the 628th
    communications battalion and the 772nd reconnaissance battalion are
    deployed in Gyumri (Leninakan).

    Even a person who is ignorant of military issues realizes that this
    is a powerful force capable of dictating its conditions to the whole
    of the South Caucasus.

    The aforesaid reconnaissance battalion, which has a wide range of
    responsibilities - from collecting information all over the South
    Caucasus to planning and carrying out various kinds of provocation,
    including inciting interethnic strife - particularly has to be taken
    into account. The leader of the Georgian People's Front Party, Prof
    Nodar Natadze, has said unequivocally in this connection that almost
    all the Russian military bases are stuffed with special forces for
    carrying out sabotage and terrorist attacks. Judging by the recent
    events in the South Caucasus, the special forces are quite busy. The
    Armenia-based 772nd reconnaissance battalion is just the visible part
    of sabotage activities conducted by the military bases and
    representative offices of Russian colonizers in the South Caucasus.

    If on top of it we put the enormous military-technical "assistance"
    under Yeltsin, it will be clear that today Armenia is the major
    imperial outpost of the Kremlin in the South Caucasus. In addition,
    Armenia has been and remains the foothold for the Russian colonizers'
    air strikes on Chechnya.

    Paradoxical as it may sound, having evicted all the ethnic Russians
    from Armenia, the Armenian authorities have granted the Russian
    military pilots the right to shell Chechnya and easily return to
    their bases in Armenia.

    In this ugly alliance of Armenia and Russia, there is one important
    point: by betraying the interests of the Caucasus, the Yerevan
    government betrays the interests of Armenia, for it backs the
    interests of the enemies of the Caucasus - the Russian colonizers. By
    reinforcing the Russian military presence at home, Armenia is risking
    to become an outcast in the Caucasus.
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