YEREVAN (RFE?RL)—A team of Armenian army officers has visited Turkish military bases deployed along Turkey’s border with Armenia to verify Ankara’s compliance with a key international arms control treaty.
The Armenian Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday that its representatives travelled to Turkey on November 26 and spent a week counting tanks, artillery systems and other military hardware at an army brigade and a regiment headquartered in the border towns of Kars and Igdir respectively. Both units are part of the Turkish Third Army deployed in the country’s northeast.
A Defense Ministry statement said the Armenian officers also held a “briefing” with Turkish military commanders on the ground on “combat issues, trainings and general issues.”
The statement added that the weeklong inspection detected no violations of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty by Ankara.
Signed in 1990 and revised in 1999, the CFE places specific limits on the deployment of troops and heavy weapons from the Atlantic coast to Russia’s Ural mountains. Armenia as well as neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan signed up to the treaty after gaining independence.
Signatories to the treaty are allowed to inspect each other’s compliance with the arms ceilings through random visits to practically any military facility. Military delegations from Turkey and other NATO member states have regularly traveled to Armenia for this purpose since the mid-1990s. The Armenian military first sent a group of CFE inspectors to eastern Turkey in March 2010.
The mutual inspections by the Armenian and Turkish armed forces have taken place despite the absence of diplomatic relations between the two neighboring states. Neither side has accused the other of violating the CFE.
By contrast, Armenia and Azerbaijan have long been accusing one another of exceeding their equal arms quotas set by the Cold War-era treaty. Azerbaijan says that Armenia keeps a large part of its weaponry in Nagorno-Karabakh to imitate its compliance with the pact. Armenian officials, for their part, say that Baku is obstructing international inspections of its military facilities.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani militaries have never sent CFE inspectors to each other’s units in line with a gentleman’s agreement dating back to the 1990s.
this info could help the pkk, who is actually fighting the turks. we need to start establishing relation with the kurds and start helping them. establish military, cultural and humanitarian ties.
why? because they are the only people who have actually apologized and admitted about their role in the armenian genocide and have actually taken steps to mend relations with armenians. theyve even called armenians to come back to their lands and start living there again. youll never hear that from turks.
also, they are actually living there while were not. one day they may get their independance, we’d better start helping them if we want to see a piece of that pie
The title of this article is wrong. It should be changed to the following: “Armenian Soldiers Inspect Occupied Armenian Territories Where Turkish Border Troops Are Stationed”
When does the Armenian government plan to lay claim to the stolen lands and begin seeking justice?
Armenia should simply dump all the money they can into R&D. We have the brains, we simply need to nurture it. We should become a technological hub of that region. Weapons, propulsion methods, computing, IT, pharmaceutials you name it. We have the brains, I know the money is a problem but if the EU & Russian trade agreements come through that should be less of a problem. Only the USA doesnt want to strike a trade agreement with Armenia.
Judging from the posts above, Armenian folks still have a lot to learn:
1) Helping Kurds is a great idea. Turkey is already helping the Kurds in northern Iraq. Helping PKK may not be such a good idea.
2) As long as you have any territory claim to Turkish land, you’ll be in trouble. Turkey’s economy is growing at a significantly high rate which Armenia should not ignore. If you want the Turks to apologize, Armenia should be ready to apologize in a similar fashion for siding with Russia in efforts to destroy the Ottoman empire and in killing of the Turkish population by Armenian gangs.
To Martin, the Turk, and the Bigmostache,
Armenia can not help the Kurds, but Russia can as counter action against the Turkish involvement and assistance to the Syrian Criminals with arms and military staff.
This will help the soonest disintegeration of turky, which can not be avoided if you think the 35-40 million kurds in Asia Minor.
We can support the Kurds morally and politically, as natural reaction.
The name TURKEY can not be used for ASIA MINOR. as Asia Minor has never been known as TURKEY.
Regarding the Border Troops Inspection, Armenia should never permit the Turkish soldiers inspection of Armenian Border Troops, as Turkey will transmit the information to their Turk-Azeri brothers.
Vahan Vanagan
I’m just learning about the genocide. Let me tell you, Armenians got a huge islamic cork screw in their back from Turks. Amazing and very tragic story