RIA Novosti, Russia
June 2 2005
No new agreements have to be inked for taking Russian military
hardware from Georgia to Armenia – Armenian Defense Ministry
21:11
YEREVAN, June 2 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) – The moving
of Russian military equipment from Georgia to Armenia will not
necessitate the conclusion of new agreements, press secretary Colonel
Seiran Shakhsuvarian of the Armenian defense minister told RIA Novosti
on Thursday.
The lifting to Armenia of part of equipment from the Russian military
bases stationed in Georgia is regulated by the Armenian-Russian
agreement on military cooperation and the disposition of the Russian
military bases in Armenia, the quotas obligations provided for in
the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, he said.
“For this reason there’s no need to conclude a new document or a new
agreement between the sides for bringing Russian military equipment
to Armenia,” Shakhsuvarian said.
On Tuesday a trainload of military equipment and ammunition had set
off from the Batumi base to the Armenian town of Gyumri, he recalled.
Simultaneously, Shakhsuvarian noted that relocation of Russian
servicemen from Georgia to Armenia has not yet been spoken of.
Back in 1995, in keeping with the Armenian-Russian interstate
agreement, the Russian 102nd military base was deployed near Gyumri and
is now doing combat duty within the framework of the united air-defense
system of countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The base is subordinated to the Transcaucasian group of troops of the
Russian North Caucasian military district. The base has an aircraft
missile system S-300 and MiG-29 fighters, a 5,000-strong personnel.
The possibility of relocating Russian military bases from Georgia
to Armenia has worried Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. It believes
that the relocation will not be conducive to settling the drawn-out
Armenian-Azeri conflict around Nagorny Karabakh, an Armenian enclave
in Azerbaijan.