RUSSIA COMPLETES WITHDRAWAL OF TROOPS FROM AKHALKALAK MILITARY BASE
Noyan Tapan
Jul 2, 2007
AKHALKALAK, JULY 2, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Levan Nikoleishvili,
the First Georgian Deputy Defence Minister, and Andrei Popov, the
Commander of the Russian military unit in the South Caucasus, at the
June 27 ceremony held in Tbilisi, signed a a document, by which the
military base of Akhalkalak was handed over to Georgia.
According to A-Info, in recent days the Georgian armed forces are
moving to the military base in small groups, where the Georgian state
flag has been already hoisted instead of the Russian one.
Once the number of servicemen reached 15 thousand at the military base,
which began functioning in 1910.
Russia is also going to close its military base in Batumi next
year. Part of the military equipment withdrawn from that military base
is moved to Russia through the territory of Azerbaijan and another
part immediately to Armenia.