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EXPLANATIONS REQUESTED: RUSSIAN ARMS EXPORT TO AZERBAIJAN...
WPS Agency, Russia
June 27, 2013 Thursday
Source: Izvestia (Moscow issue), No 115, June 27, 2013, p. 7 by Tigran
Oganesjan, Konstantin Volkov
RUSSIAN ARMS EXPORT TO AZERBAIJAN PREDICTABLY DISTURBED AND UPSET
ARMENIA; Armenia is objecting to Russian arms export to Azerbaijan.
Russian arms export to Azerbaijan upset official Yerevan. Armenia
fears that it might tip regional parity in Azerbaijan's favor.
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict makes Azerbaijan and Armenia particularly
sensitive to even smallest changes in the regional situation. No
wonder Yerevan is disturbed by the ongoing Russian-Azerbaijani
military-technical cooperation.
"The Azerbaijanis are getting weapons from Russia. We know it for
a fact," said Armenian Defense Ministry Press Secretary Artsrun
Ovannisjan. "The military parade in Baku on June 26 is proof."
According to some estimates, the military hardware package worth $1
billion includes tanks, mobile artillery guns, volley-fire rocket
launchers, and other weapons.
"We intend to ask the Russian authorities... to explain their
motives," said Korjun Naapetjan of the Armenian parliament's Defense
and Security Committee.
Apart from that, Armenia means to bring up the matter of Russian arms
export to Azerbaijan at the meeting of chairmen of parliamentary
committees on defense and security of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization in Minsk, Belarus, and at the meeting of the
Defense and Security Committee of the CIS CSTO Parliamentary Assembly
in Yerevan come October.
"We want to know what convinced the Russians to sell military hardware
to Azerbaijan," said Naapetjan. "Was it purely commercial interest...
or some other considerations perhaps?"
Ara Papjan, the head of Modus Vivendi center and ex-ambassador to
Canada, said that mere enquiries would be inadequate. Papjan suggested
a formal protest to the Russian Federation. "It's wrong... for
Armenia's strategic partner to be selling military hardware to
Azerbaijan," he said.
Armenia cannot help thinking that Russian military hardware wielded by
the Azerbaijani regular army might tip regional parity in Baku's favor.
The Armenians refer to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in
Europe which sets weapons quotas for signatories. They claim that the
Azerbaijanis already have 600 tanks instead of the 220 permitted them
by the CFE.
"An intermediary in the Karabakh conflict... Russia is sending
100 brand-new tanks to Azerbaijan, a warring side that has already
exceeded its conventional arms quota," said Alexander Arzumanjan,
lawmaker and former foreign minister.
Russian political scientists refuse to entertain the idea that
arms export to Azerbaijan will have any noticeable effect on the
Russian-Armenian relations.
"Russia and Armenia are members of the CIS CSTO... and Azerbaijan is
not," said Institute of CIS Countries Directorate Konstantin Zatulin.
"What the Armenians are making all this noise about... comes down
to banal commerce. Russia might renege on the contract of course but
Azerbaijan will find military hardware it needs elsewhere and get it
all the same."
Zatulin continued, "Besides, Armenia is getting its share of Russian
military hardware too. S-300 complexes for example are weapons more
formidable than whatever Russia sells to Baku."
[Translated from Russian]
WPS Agency, Russia
June 27, 2013 Thursday
Source: Izvestia (Moscow issue), No 115, June 27, 2013, p. 7 by Tigran
Oganesjan, Konstantin Volkov
RUSSIAN ARMS EXPORT TO AZERBAIJAN PREDICTABLY DISTURBED AND UPSET
ARMENIA; Armenia is objecting to Russian arms export to Azerbaijan.
Russian arms export to Azerbaijan upset official Yerevan. Armenia
fears that it might tip regional parity in Azerbaijan's favor.
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict makes Azerbaijan and Armenia particularly
sensitive to even smallest changes in the regional situation. No
wonder Yerevan is disturbed by the ongoing Russian-Azerbaijani
military-technical cooperation.
"The Azerbaijanis are getting weapons from Russia. We know it for
a fact," said Armenian Defense Ministry Press Secretary Artsrun
Ovannisjan. "The military parade in Baku on June 26 is proof."
According to some estimates, the military hardware package worth $1
billion includes tanks, mobile artillery guns, volley-fire rocket
launchers, and other weapons.
"We intend to ask the Russian authorities... to explain their
motives," said Korjun Naapetjan of the Armenian parliament's Defense
and Security Committee.
Apart from that, Armenia means to bring up the matter of Russian arms
export to Azerbaijan at the meeting of chairmen of parliamentary
committees on defense and security of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization in Minsk, Belarus, and at the meeting of the
Defense and Security Committee of the CIS CSTO Parliamentary Assembly
in Yerevan come October.
"We want to know what convinced the Russians to sell military hardware
to Azerbaijan," said Naapetjan. "Was it purely commercial interest...
or some other considerations perhaps?"
Ara Papjan, the head of Modus Vivendi center and ex-ambassador to
Canada, said that mere enquiries would be inadequate. Papjan suggested
a formal protest to the Russian Federation. "It's wrong... for
Armenia's strategic partner to be selling military hardware to
Azerbaijan," he said.
Armenia cannot help thinking that Russian military hardware wielded by
the Azerbaijani regular army might tip regional parity in Baku's favor.
The Armenians refer to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in
Europe which sets weapons quotas for signatories. They claim that the
Azerbaijanis already have 600 tanks instead of the 220 permitted them
by the CFE.
"An intermediary in the Karabakh conflict... Russia is sending
100 brand-new tanks to Azerbaijan, a warring side that has already
exceeded its conventional arms quota," said Alexander Arzumanjan,
lawmaker and former foreign minister.
Russian political scientists refuse to entertain the idea that
arms export to Azerbaijan will have any noticeable effect on the
Russian-Armenian relations.
"Russia and Armenia are members of the CIS CSTO... and Azerbaijan is
not," said Institute of CIS Countries Directorate Konstantin Zatulin.
"What the Armenians are making all this noise about... comes down
to banal commerce. Russia might renege on the contract of course but
Azerbaijan will find military hardware it needs elsewhere and get it
all the same."
Zatulin continued, "Besides, Armenia is getting its share of Russian
military hardware too. S-300 complexes for example are weapons more
formidable than whatever Russia sells to Baku."
[Translated from Russian]