Russian foreign minister shrugs off dispute over bases in Georgia
By STEVE GUTTERMAN; Associated Press Writer

Associated Press Worldstream
March 11, 2005 Friday 3:46 PM Eastern Time

MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister shrugged off a push by Georgia’s
parliament for a deadline for a Russian military withdrawal, saying
Friday that the dispute must be resolved through negotiations and
pledging to step up the talks.

Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili, too, voiced hope for a
compromise that would help warm up often-tense relations between his
Caucasus nation and its giant northern neighbor.

Georgian lawmakers voted Thursday to call on their government to demand
that Russia close the bases by the beginning of next year if the two
ex-Soviet republics fail to agree on a timetable for the withdrawal
by May 15.

The unanimous resolution raised the stakes in the dispute over the
bases – hangovers from the Soviet era that helped sour relations
between Russia and Georgia, whose new Western-oriented leadership is
trying to shed Moscow’s influence.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that during a visit to
Georgia last month, “We agreed to use the next two months to try to
activate the negotiation process” on unresolved disputes including
the bases.

“This agreement stands,” Lavrov said. He said talks would be held
“in the near future.”

Lavrov stressed that Russia’s contact on the issue was not with
Georgia’s parliament but its executive branch.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s administration had pressured
lawmakers Wednesday to withdraw the resolution.

Saakashvili said late Friday that despite the parliament’s “sharp”
move, talks continued.

“I don’t lose hope that we can reach a civilized agreement that
wouldn’t infringe on Russia’s interests while respecting independence
and sovereignty of Georgia,” he told reporters in the Georgian capital,
Tbilisi. “There is a hope that solving this issue could become a
victory for Georgian and Russian diplomacy and take our relations to
a new level.”

Lavrov declined to comment on Russia’s position on a timetable for
the withdrawal, but a senior Russian Defense Ministry official said
Thursday that the bases could be closed within three to four years,
rather than 11 or more as stated previously. The head of the foreign
affairs committee in Georgia’s parliament suggested it should be no
longer than two years.

The Georgian parliament’s nonbinding resolution said that if Moscow
does not comply with withdrawal demands, the bases – at Batumi and
Akhalkalaki – should be forced out by refusing to issue visas to
Russian military personnel and limiting the movement of troops and
materiel in Georgia.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko assailed
Georgia on Friday over a delay in issuing visa to the new commander
of Russian forces in Georgia, saying that “solving this and other
issues exacerbating conditions for the Russian military in Georgia
would help creat favorable conditions for talks.”

Nationalist Russian lawmaker Konstantin Zatulin told the newspaper
Nezavisimaya Gazeta that if Georgia tries to force the pullout,
Moscow should raise its prices for gas and oil deliveries in
retaliation. Georgia relies heavily on Russia for energy supplies.

The Russian daily Kommersant said Moscow fears its military presence
in Armenia – its closest ally in the strategic Caucasus region –
could be at risk if it pulls out of Georgia.

Russia does not border Armenia, and uses Georgian territory to move
troops and equipment to its military base there.

Russian lawmaker urges retaliation against Georgia in base dispute

Associated Press Worldstream
March 11, 2005 Friday 6:19 AM Eastern Time

MOSCOW,

A Russian lawmaker on Friday called for retaliation against Georgia
if the former Soviet republic tries to force the closure of the two
remaining Russian military bases in the Caucasus Mountains country.

Georgian lawmakers voted Thursday to call on their government to set
an ultimatum to agree on a timetable for the bases’ closure by May 15.

The non-binding motion said that if Moscow does not comply, the Batumi
and Akhalkalaki bases should be forced out by Georgia refusing to
issue visas to Russian military personnel and limiting the movement
of troops, vehicles and equipment in the country.

Russian lawmaker Konstantin Zatulin told the Russian daily Nezavisimaya
Gazeta that Moscow should raise its prices for gas and oil deliveries
to Georgia in retaliation.

“If our military are refused visas or are the target of provocation,
then I don’t see any reason to continue to supply Georgia with energy
at prices far below world levels,” Zatulin said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Georgia’s parliament of sabotaging
negotiations over the bases’ future.

The parliamentary resolution raised the stakes in a long-simmering
dispute between the two countries, which according to Russia’s
Kommersant daily is connected to Russian fears that its military
presence in neighboring Armenia could be at risk if it pulls out
of Georgia.

Armenia, Moscow’s closest ally in the Caucasus, does not border on
Russia, which needs to transit Georgian territory to move its troops
and equipment to its Armenian military base.

“The problem of the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Georgia
is not just a bitter spat about the timetable for the pullout and
compensation. This dispute has much more serious ramifications. It
is about Russia hanging onto or losing its presence and influence in
the Transcaucasus,” Kommersant said in an opinion column.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said the
Georgian lawmakers were only making the negotiating process more
difficult.

“When active contacts are underway and when both the Russian and
Georgian sides are preparing concrete proposals, we believe that
discussing this question and legislative bodies raising this issue
is counterproductive and will hinder the talks,” he told reporters.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
March 9, 2005, Wednesday

DESPITE WASHINGTON

SOURCE: Voyenno-Promyshlenny Kurier, No 8, March 2 – 15, 2005, p. 3

by Samvel Martirosjan

ARMENIA MAY COME TO PLAY AN INSTRUMENTAL ROLE IN MOSCOW’S PLANS OF
PREVENTING AMERICAN STRIKES AT IRAN

Official Yerevan is advancing its contacts with Tehran. Construction
of a gas pipeline from Iran to Armenia began not long ago. Energy
dialogue between the two countries is at twice its former
intensiveness. Powers-that-be are already discussing construction of
a railroad between the two countries. It will become an element of
the North-South transport corridor whose project is actively promoted
by Moscow.

In other words, Yerevan and Tehran are doing what they can to benefit
from their closeness to each other. It would have been hardly
surprising but for a single nuance: all of that is happening against
the background of the quarrel between Iran and the United States
whose intensiveness is mounting too. In the meantime, Yerevan
presents itself as one of Washington’s leading partners in the
Caucasus.

In the meantime, Serzh Sarkisjan, Defense Minister of Armenia and
Secretary of the Presidential Security Council, visited Tehran on
February 7-9 within the framework of bilateral rapprochement. He met
with the president of Iran, foreign and defense ministers, and other
senior officials. Regional security was in the focus of all
negotiations. Sarkisjan suggested to Hasan Rouhani, Secretary of the
Supreme Council of National Security, to arrange regional
negotiations on the level of secretaries of Security Councils and
contemplate cooperation in the sphere of security. Sarkisjan is
convinced that the new facts of life make a security framework like
that a must. Rouhani in his turn is convinced that all regional
security projects must be discussed by all countries of the region.
President Mohamad Hatami assured Sarkisjan that his country intends
to advance and broaden bilateral contacts with Armenia.

Tehran’s position is understandable. American troops have all but
surrounded Iran on all sides. The United States has military bases in
Turkey; it has occupied Iraq and has troops in Afghanistan as well.
All of that cannot help but worry Iran. More and more frequent leaks
to the media indicate that Washington intends to move its troops to
Azerbaijan as well. There is also the possibility that the Americans
will use Azerbaijani airports for air raids against Iran. The
situation being what it is, Armenia remains the only place from which
Tehran does not expect a stab in the back.

Yerevan too is worried by the possibility of an American attack on
Iran. Right upon his return from Tehran Sarkisjan was quoted as
saying to a correspondent of Yerkir newspaper that “We hope that
there will be no hostilities and that new areas of tension will not
appear in the region across our borders. Any tension and particularly
hostilities may play the role of a detonator. We hope that the
American-Iranian relations will improve, all problems settled
peacefully.”

This negative attitude towards potential deterioration is shared by
Kiro Manojan, head of the Political Department of Armenian
Revolutionary Movement Dashnaktsutyun, one of the largest political
structures in the republic and an element of the ruling coalition.
“Dashnaktsutyun regards the Armenian-Iranian relations and
territorial integrity of Iran as very important,” he said in an
on-line interview with Caucasus journalistic Network website. “From
this point of view, potential attacks of America or other countries
against Iran worry us greatly. In this, our party shares the
positions of some United States’ allies in Europe.”

As soon as Sarkisjan left, Rouhani visited Russia. It stands to
reason to expect Armenia to come to play an instrumental role in
Moscow’s plans of prevention of escalation of tension in the Middle
East and American strikes against Iran.

Diaspora money transfers a way for Armenia’s survival
by Mariam Kharutyunyan

Agence France Presse — English
March 9, 2005 Wednesday 4:09 AM GMT

YEREVAN March 9 — Armenia’s economy, bled dry since the Soviet Union’s
fall and the war with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
now depends on fund transfers from its sprawling diaspora for survival.

“Foreign transfers allow our citizens to keep a good level of life
which in its turn allows for an increase in the output aggregate,”
the Central Bank’s president Tigran Sargsyan stressed.

Since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, nearly a million Armenians
left Armenia, a resource-poor Caucasian republic facing economic
blockade from neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan due to the conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s largely Armenian province which
had revolted in 1990s.

Most had flocked to Russia, the United States and Europe.

The transfers of expatriate Armenians have gone up by over a half
last year to reach 740 million dollars, topping the country’s
600-million-dollar budget — and were due to climb to a billion
this year.

According to the central bank, these transfers make up a quarter of
Armenia’s economic growth.

Transfers bloomed, Sargsyan explained, as Armenians abroad saw their
own fortunes improve, while the links between the diaspora and its
motherland became ever stronger.

“Economic growth makes Armenia more attractive for the diaspora,
which invests in real estate and goes back to live in the homeland
of their origins,” Sargsyan said.

Meanwhile, many of Armenia’s remaining 3.7-million population lives
on the money sent by their relatives or friends working abroad.

“Other countries can count on natural resources such as oil. For
Armenia, its important diaspora is such a resource,” along with
immigrant workers, economist Levon Barkhudaryan said, adding that
repatriated funds help ease social and political tensions within.

However, other experts warn against the transfers’ darker side, saying,
like Vagram Avanesyan, that they are a handicap on local production
and a boost to imports, not to mention downright dependence.

Either way, many Armenians are driven to work across the border even
though it may mean a long time away from home.

“For years, my husband has been searching in vain for a job in Armenia,
and he had to go abroad, even though it was very hard for him to
leave his family,” mourned Anna, a 36-year-old mother of two.

“Every time he calls, he asks if there is a job for him in our
country.”

Like many other Armenians who mostly work in service, trade or
construction, Anna’s husband had been working for five years at
construction sites in a small Russian town and sends his family some
400 dollars each month.

“My daughter Marina has been working for two years as a babysitter
though she has a diploma from Yerevan’s polytechnic institute,” said
Vardan, a 60-year-old living on the money his elder daughter sends
him from the United States.

“No one is surprised anymore to see a former professor as a street
peddler in Moscow or a scientist as a taxi driver in Madrid,” Vardan
added bitterly.

HUNGARY PLAYED ROLE IN SETTLING AZERI-ARMENIAN CONFLICT,

Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
March 10, 2005

Budapest, March 10 (MTI) – Hungary played a positive role in settling
the Azeri-Armenian conflict by approving in 1994, as chairman-in-office
of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), the
replacement of Russian forces with international peacekeeping units
in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Azeri ambassador to Hungary told
reporters in Budapest on Thursday.

Speaking on the recent discussion about the Azeri-Armenian conflict
at the UN Security Council and the Council of Europe, Ambassador
Hassan Hasanov said that in the early 1990s Armenian aggressors had
occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, killed over 18,000
people and forced approximately one million Azeris into exile. At
the press conference, a TV-footage and images were displayed to
demonstrate that Armenia was still pursuing an active settlement
policy in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Organised crime, illegal trading and drugs trafficking are also
problems in Karabakh today,” the ambassador said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Georgia interested in Iran-Armenia gas pipeline
By Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 11, 2005 Friday

YEREVAN, March 11 — Georgia is interested in the construction of a gas
pipeline from Iran to Armenia and discusses possible gas transit from
Iran to Ukraine via Armenia and Georgia, Georgian Prime Minister Zurab
Nogaideli told his Armenian counterpart Andranik Markaryan on Friday.

Nogaideli came to Yerevan in the evening on a two-day working visit.

Nogaideli and Markaryan noted a high level of mutual confidence and
cooperation, a source in the Armenian governmental press service
told Itar-Tass.

Strengthening of the Armenian-Georgian relations becomes topical in
the light of integration with European organizations, especially after
the involvement of the South Caucasian states into the EU Neighborhood
Policy, the prime ministers said.

Closer bilateral cooperation in regional and international
organizations meets the interests of Armenia and Georgia, they said.

Bilateral economic cooperation has intensified, and trade grew 50%
last year, they said.

Georgia has built the Sadakhlo-Marneuli motor road to Armenia and
provided for the road security under an agreement between the two
presidents, Nogaideli said.

The Armenian premier welcomed the Russian-Georgian intergovernmental
agreement to open a railroad ferry line between the Georgian port of
Poti and Russia’s Caucasus port on the Krasnodar territory.

Meanwhile, ArmRosGazprom General Director Karen Karapetyan said in
Yerevan on Friday that ArmRosGazprom joint venture between Russia
and Armenia has won a tender for the construction of the Armenian
segment of a gas pipeline from Iran to Armenia.

ArmRosGazprom transports and distributes natural gas in Armenia. The
Armenian government and Russia’s Gazprom gas giant have 45% interest
in the joint venture each, while ITERA international company has 10%.

The pipeline, whose construction will start in late March – early
April, will supply gas only to Armenia. It will not have capacities
for gas transit. Iran will supply natural gas in exchange for Armenia’s
electricity.

“If Iran and Ukraine agree to lay a transit gas pipeline across
Armenia, we will certainly take part in the project,” Karapetyan said.

“Armenia will have exclusive positions in the regional energy system
if it has an alternative gas pipeline from Iran, an underground gas
storage facility and excess of electricity,” he said.

The Toronto Star
March 10, 2005 Thursday

Red maple Rock the vote!

by Alex Kucharski, Planet Bookworm

This year’s Red Maple fiction books look very promising and I’m here
to give you Planeteers the up to date guide to the 10 fantastic books
that are nominated. The nominees span from the genre of historical
fiction to fantasy to mystery to animal adventures to current issues.
All Red Maple voters from Grades 7 and 8 only, will have a hard time
picking the book that shall win the 2005 Red Maple Award.

Here’s your clip-and-save guide.

Book: Airborn

Author: Kenneth Oppel

Plot: While on a rescue mission of an old man in his hot air balloon,
Matt Cruise, a cabin boy on board the Aurora, a “900-foot luxury
airship,” is told an amazing story of fantastical creatures that this
old man has seen flying through the clouds. Matt does not think
anything of this story, however a year later after a rich girl named
Kate comes on board with her obnoxious chaperone, ready to prove this
story of her grandfather true, Matt must put his doubtful thoughts
away and help Kate on her journey. Matt and Kate encounter pirates,
shipwreck and much more adventures, before they are able to figure
out if these creatures really exist.

Prediction: Airborn is a fantastic adventure story that will make the
top three for sure! As for winning the Red Maple Award, that’s all up
to the participants of the Red Maple program. However, this is sure
to be on the top of many favourites’ lists. 10/10

Book: The Heaven Shop

Author: Deborah Ellis

Plot: Binti is the star of a hit radio show in Malawi. She lives with
her brother, sister and father, in a small coffin shop. During the
day she attends a private girls school, while once a week she records
her show. To her, her life is perfect. But she is soon struck by
tragedy, when her father dies and she is left as an orphan with only
her siblings and evil relatives. Their relatives split the three
siblings up and put them to hard work, not caring about them.
However, Binti and her sister escape to their grandma where they
learn to live a poorer life but still manage to be happy.

Prediction: This sad story is very touching and extremely informative
about the current AIDS epidemic in Africa. A must read! Deborah Ellis
was nominated for the Silver Birch Award four years ago for the first
book in her Parvana series. My premonitions show me that she will
probably be in the top three or even the winner. But I can’t tell you
exactly. 9/10

Book: A Different Kind of Beauty

Author: Sylvia McNicoll

Plot: Liz and Beauty make a perfect team. Liz is a Grade 8 girl who
is training Beauty, a future guide dog. Throughout Beauty’s training
course, both come among many hardships, including startling news from
her sister, meeting a blind boy in their school, and the split of Liz
and Beauty, once Beauty’s training is over. It’s a puberty-filled
roller coaster of breakups and splits. The ending is full of
surprises and coincidences you could never imagine.

Prediction: I absolutely loved it! It’s fun, intelligent and full of
emotion. I actually had brief moments where I was surprised that I
could read or draw as I felt as if I were blind myself. This book
definitely has a spot in the top three. Will it make it win? I don’t
know. My crystal ball is stuck on that one, and so am I. 9.5/10

Book: Nobody’s Child

Author: Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Plot: Three siblings, Miriam, Marta and Onnig, are orphaned by the
Adana massacre of Armenians in 1901 and travel back to their home in
Marash with their friend, Kevrok and his aunt, to go back to live
with their family. However, with such a big household, poverty soon
strikes and difficult choices are to be made. Miriam and Marta are
separated from their relatives and Onnig to go to a “special”
orphanage. Once they settle in and become part of the orphanage life,
the Turks start deporting and killing people from Marash. Can Miriam,
Marta, Onnig and their family along with Kevrok and his aunt survive
and reunite?

Prediction: This story is very sad, depicting these hard times very
realistically. I recommend this book to absolutely everyone. But I
cannot make a prediction for this novel. With further consultation of
my Tarot cards, I was still not able to decrypt this book’s future
success in the Red Maple Awards. 8.5/10

Book: Dead and Gone

Author: Norah McClintock

Plot: In the third instalment of the Mike and Riel series, Mike is
given 100 community hours for a box of cupcakes he stole back in the
first book of the series. While he is doing his community service at
the town recreation centre, he comes to know Emily Corwin, a rich
girl whose mother was murdered a few years ago. As Mike is thrust
into this mysterious girl’s life, he uncovers some dirty secrets that
should have been uncovered years ago, when the investigation for the
murderer of Emily’s mother was still going on. Alex

Kucharski

Book worm

Swiss Foreign Minister set for two-day visit to Turkey

Agence France Presse — English
March 8, 2005 Tuesday 11:20 AM GMT

ANKARA March 8 – Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey will travel
to Turkey for two days starting March 29, making up for a visit that
was cancelled nearly two years ago, a diplomatic official said.

The minister was scheduled to go to Turkey in September 2003 but the
visit was pushed back by Turkish officials after the Swiss canton of
Vaud qualified as genocide the 1915 massacre of Armenians under the
Ottoman Empire.

Calmy-Rey is set to meet in Ankara with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet
Sezer and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul.

She will also visit Istanbul and the medieval-walled city of Diyarbakir
in the southeast.

Turkey to open archives for probe into alleged WWI genocide

Xinhua General News Service, China
March 9, 2005 Wednesday 9:30 AM EST

ANKARA — Turkey is to open its archives for historians in a bid to
fight against Armenia’s allegation of genocide during World War I,
private NTV reported Wednesday.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the statement after
a meeting on Tuesday with Deniz Baykal, leader of the main opposition
Republican People’s Party (CHP).

“We will open our archives to those people who claim there was a
genocide. Teams of historians from both sides should conduct studies
in these archives,” he said.

Such a study should be carried out by historians from both Turkey
and Armenia, Erdogan said at a press conference following the meeting.

Erdogan said there should be an unbiased and impartial study into
allegations that the Ottoman Empire carried out acts of genocide
against the empire’s Armenian citizens during World War I.

Baykal, on his part, said the allegation being levelled at Turkey
was part of a deliberate campaign against the country.

Turkey has always denied that the Armenians were subjected to genocide
in the period between 1915 and 1923. However, it does acknowledge
that up to 300,000 Armenians, and an even higher number of Muslims,
died during fightings and Ottoman’s efforts to relocate populations
away from the war zone in eastern Turkey.

Armenian claims up to 1.5 million Armenians died in the period as a
result of systematic genocide.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
March 9, 2005, Wednesday

TWO COUNTRIES – ONE BORDER

SOURCE: Krasnaya Zvezda, March 4, 2005, p. 1

by Olg Gorupai

Age-old partnership between Russia and Armenia is still developing.
Our countries interact in the spheres of economy and culture; they
advance military and military-technical cooperation. Here is an
interview with Colonel Vyacheslav Voskanjan, Commander of the Border
Troops of the National Security Service of Armenia, on why the
Republic of Armenia appealed to Russia with the suggestion that they
guard the Armenian borders together, on service of Armenian border
guards and their interaction with Russian counterparts.

>>From our folders:

Vyacheslav Avetisovich Voskanjan was born on September 13, 1957, in
Stepanakert (Nagorno-Karabakh). He finished the Red Banner Supreme
Military Political School of the KGB of the USSR named after
Voroshilov in 1978, and Frunze Academy in 1995. Voskanjan served in
the Border Troops of the Caucasus Border District of the Soviet KGB.
After 1993, he served with structures and troops of the National
Security Service of Armenia. He became commander of the Border Troops
in July 2003.

Question: Armenia is one of the few post-Soviet states that did not
reject help from Russia in defense of its state borders. Have there
been valid reasons for it?

Vyacheslav Voskanjan: Russia and Armenia signed the Treaty “On the
status of Border Troops of the Russian Federation on the territory of
the Republic of Armenia and their functioning…” on September 30,
1992. Acting in the interests of its own security, security of the
Russian Federation, and collective security of CIS countries, Armenia
delegated the powers of protection of its borders with Turkey and
Iran to the Russian Border Troops quartered on its territory at the
time of signing of the treaty. The document defines the structure,
tasks, rights, and procedures of funding of the Russian Border Troops
quartered on the territory of Armenia, and regulate many other
aspects. The signing of the treaty was a logical corollary of the
situation Armenia found itself in when the Soviet Union disintegrated
and sovereign countries appeared in its place, when the situation on
the borders became complicated and Armenia did not have Border Troops
of its own.

Question: When were Border Troops of Armenia formed? Are there any
differences between them and analogous structures in nearby
countries?

Vyacheslav Voskanjan: Border Troops of the Republic of Armenia were
formed on January 28, 1992. Initially, they were an element of the
Defense Ministry. Border Troops were transferred to the National
Security Service in 1993. Generally speaking, their structure is
analogous to that of the Border Troops of the Soviet Union and
Russian Federation – border detachments, commandant’s offices,
outposts, and checkpoints.

Question: What parts of the Armenian state borders are manned by
Russian border guards? How would you appraise relations between
border guards of the two countries?

Vyacheslav Voskanjan: We could not wish for any better relations.
They are based on friendship and mutual assistance. We all share a
common task – security of the Russian Federation and the Republic of
Armenia. It involves maintenance of the state border regime, control
over individuals, transport means, and shipments crossing the state
border, prevention of all and any provocations, and interaction with
foreign colleagues. In Armenia, Russia Gazeta, man the Turkish and a
part of the Iranian part of the border totalling about 400 kilometers
in length, they also man the crossing point at Zvartnots airport in
Yerevan.

We regularly arrange meetings; exchange of information is regular
too…

Question: Who else do Armenian border guards maintain close contacts
in this sphere with? Apart from the Russian Federation, that is.

Vyacheslav Voskanjan: A special emphasis is being made on advancement
of contacts and cooperation on the Armenian-Georgian border.
Everything is done with the interests of the countries and their
national legislations taken into account. Armenian and Georgian
border guards work side by side preventing activities of illegal
armed formations and terrorist organizations, smugglers of arms and
drugs, etc. multilateral interaction between border guards is also
under way within the framework of the CIS Council of Commanders of
Border Troops.

Question: Are there any unsolved problems in the matter of
demarcation and delimitation of the state border with Georgia?

Vyacheslav Voskanjan: Under the protocol of the meeting on August 14,
1995, signed by government delegations of Armenia and Georgia, our
countries agreed to set up a joint panel for delimitation and
demarcation. Four meetings of working groups have taken place so far.
Moot points and conflicts (theft of cattle, illegal felling of trees,
detention of vehicles with consumer goods, etc.) were handled at
these meetings. A visa free regime is operating on the
Armenian-Georgian border.

Question: What parts of the Armenian borders are most problematic
from the point of view of their security?

Vyacheslav Voskanjan: We do not have any serious problems in this
respect. On the other hand, parts of the state border with Azerbaijan
bear watching, but units of the Armenian regular army successfully
handle this particular task.

Question: Where do you train border guards?

Vyacheslav Voskanjan: Officers for our Border Troops are trained at
colleges of the Border Service of the Russian Federal Security
Service. There are also special courses at the Training Center of the
National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia. Teaching staff
there is quite experienced.

There is also a training center for low-level officers.

Question: Every now and then Armenian media outlets run critical
materials on Russian border guards. Dissatisfaction with various
aspects of their activities – from combat training to administrative
functions – is expressed in these articles. Why is that? Does the
Russian-Armenian interaction have enemies?

Vyacheslav Voskanjan: I suspect that these quite infrequent articles
are a result of their authors’ lack of competence or knowledge of the
subject. They do not even come close to understanding difficulties of
the service of Russian border guards thousands of kilometers from
their homes. Sure, some shortcomings do present themselves but I do
not think that they are something to dwell on. I would not pay
attention to articles like that. The way we dismiss the articles and
criticism aimed against us.

Question: What awaits the Armenian-Russian cooperation in the sphere
of border protection?

Vyacheslav Voskanjan: Well, cooperation and interaction should
continue even when Russian border guards have fulfilled their mission
in Armenia and turned the border over to their Armenian opposite
numbers. This interaction is important from the point of view of our
common war on challenges to mankind and from the angle of our
brotherly relations and their advancement.

Question: International terrorism is one of these challenges,
nowadays. Standing in the way of extremists, gunmen, mercenaries,
etc., border guards are expected to contribute too. What is being
done by the Armenian Border Troops in this sphere?

Vyacheslav Voskanjan: Main Directorate of State Border Protection of
the National Security Service and other security structures take an
active part in the war on international terrorism. We are doing what
we can. For example, our specialists designed Infotel system of
automatic monitoring of migration flows at crossing points. The
system is being installed. Crossing points are outfitted with modern
detectors of radioactive materials, drugs, and explosives. Special
gear is used to verify validity of documents. We actively interact
with other CIS countries in all of that.