Armenia claimed Wednesday it will certainly seek to broaden the visibility of Russian troops on its dirt in a move that would even more reinforce Moscow’s duty as the little Caucasus country’s safety guarantor.
Russia assisted broker a peace bargain in between Armenia and also its arch-foe Azerbaijan in November which finished 6 weeks of contesting the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region that asserted the lives of some 6,000 people.
Under the bargain, Armenia delivered swathes of regions to Azerbaijan in the contested territory along with surrounding locations it had regulated since a war in the 1990s, as well as enabling the release of Russian peacekeepers in the location.
Head Of State Nikol Pashinyan stated Wednesday that his government was in “talks with Russian partners on establishing a grip of Russia’s 102nd armed forces base” in Armenia’s Syunik region that surrounds Azerbaijan as well as Iran.
” The Armenian-Russian army alliance is critical for ensuring Armenia’s protection,” he said in parliament, worrying the “important importance” of the “joint Russian-Armenian army positioning and of the joint air defense system.”
” We are discussing the possibility of broadening the capabilities of Russia’s army base.”
Armenia is part of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military alliance that additionally consists of Belarus and also three ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia.
Under the treaty, Russia has a responsibility to protect Armenia in the event that the tiny landlocked nation comes under attack from a foreign power.
Armenia holds a 3,000-troops-strong Russian armed forces base in its second-largest city of Gyumri as well as Russian border guards are deployed along Armenia’s borders with Azerbaijan, Turkey and also Iran.
Armenia and Turkey have actually been at loggerheads given that Armenia got freedom following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991 as well as their shared border has remained shut ever since.
Turkey’s backing of Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan in its dispute with Armenia over Karabakh– and also Armenia’s quote to get World War I-era massacres of ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire recognized as genocide– have soured relationships between the two nations.