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Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #685
April 26 2013
Armenia: After Landmine Deaths, Questions About Russian Army Base
Firing range where two boys stepped on a landmine was used as common
grazing by local villagers.
By Lilit Arakelyan - Caucasus
The deaths of two children on a Russian army firing range in northwest
Armenia have angered residents of nearby villages.
Mushegh Gevorgyan, 15, and Artur Lazarian, 12, from the village of
Vahramaberd in the Shirak region, were killed by a landmine on April
7. They had been grazing livestock on the military firing range.
Armenia and Russia are close allies, and Moscow maintains a military
airfield in the capital Yerevan as well as an army base in Gyumri,
Shirak's main town, to which the firing range belongs. In 2010, the
two countries agreed to extend the Russian presence at Gyumri until
2044. (See Moscow Extends Lease on Armenian Base on that deal.)
Aghvan Martirosyan, the village head in Vahramaberd, said local people
regularly took their animals onto the Russian army range under a
longstanding arrangement. On days when live firing was scheduled, they
were warned in advance and stayed away.
`Everyone knows it's dangerous there and that you must not touch bits
of weapons or shells. Everyone has been warned about it,' he told
IWPR. `But these were children - they saw pieces of aluminium around
the mine, and they were gathering it up for scrap. The mine exploded
as soon as they disturbed it.'
According to Martirosyan, security is lax around the firing range.
`It's a territory of more than ten square kilometres. The land
belonging to our village has a 2.3 kilometre boundary with the army
base, but there are no fences or barriers, just has two signs saying
the territory is dangerous and access is forbidden,' he said.
A spokesman for Russian forces in Armenia, Kirill Kiselev, insisted
that security measures were adequate.
`This is a prohibited zone. They had no right to go there. Everyone is
very well you can't do that. There are signs in Russian and Armenian
at the entrances points saying no entry, but they ignored that that,'
he said.
After meeting Russian commanders from the base, Armenian defence
minister Seyran Ohanyan called for tighter regulation.
`It's very important that all the safety precautions are enforced on
every firing range in Armenia,' he said.
The defence ministry said it would assist the two boys' families, and
help the Russians secure the firing range.
`The exclusion zone needs to be clearly demarcated,' ministry
spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.
Opposition politicians went further, with Aram Manukyan, a member of
parliament from the Armenian National Congress, questioning the
responsibilities of the Russian military and their hosts.
`If the firing range belongs to the Russian military base, then who is
responsible for fencing it off? Who is supposed to ensure security and
erect warning signs?' he asked. `If they're allowing people to pasture
their animals there, then every time they hold military exercises,
they must demine the area. This incident occurred because of
indifference to these issues.'
Defence experts in Armenia said the Russians should act to ensure the
tragedy was never repeated.
`There shouldn't be mines there at all, said David Jamalyan, a member
of the Yerevan State University's strategic studies centre. `This area
now needs to be fenced off so that civilians can't stray in
accidentally.'
Village head Martirosyan, however, opposed the idea of placing fences
around the range, since that would leave the village short of
pastureland.
The Shirak Centre, a local non-government group, backed him up.
`It's completely wrong for this firing range to exist alongside
impoverished villages who are deprived of their land. If they now
decide to tighten up security and not to let farmers graze their
livestock there, it won't resolve the problem,' the centre's head
Vahan Tumasyan said.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenia-after-landmine-deaths-questions-about-russian-army-base
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #685
April 26 2013
Armenia: After Landmine Deaths, Questions About Russian Army Base
Firing range where two boys stepped on a landmine was used as common
grazing by local villagers.
By Lilit Arakelyan - Caucasus
The deaths of two children on a Russian army firing range in northwest
Armenia have angered residents of nearby villages.
Mushegh Gevorgyan, 15, and Artur Lazarian, 12, from the village of
Vahramaberd in the Shirak region, were killed by a landmine on April
7. They had been grazing livestock on the military firing range.
Armenia and Russia are close allies, and Moscow maintains a military
airfield in the capital Yerevan as well as an army base in Gyumri,
Shirak's main town, to which the firing range belongs. In 2010, the
two countries agreed to extend the Russian presence at Gyumri until
2044. (See Moscow Extends Lease on Armenian Base on that deal.)
Aghvan Martirosyan, the village head in Vahramaberd, said local people
regularly took their animals onto the Russian army range under a
longstanding arrangement. On days when live firing was scheduled, they
were warned in advance and stayed away.
`Everyone knows it's dangerous there and that you must not touch bits
of weapons or shells. Everyone has been warned about it,' he told
IWPR. `But these were children - they saw pieces of aluminium around
the mine, and they were gathering it up for scrap. The mine exploded
as soon as they disturbed it.'
According to Martirosyan, security is lax around the firing range.
`It's a territory of more than ten square kilometres. The land
belonging to our village has a 2.3 kilometre boundary with the army
base, but there are no fences or barriers, just has two signs saying
the territory is dangerous and access is forbidden,' he said.
A spokesman for Russian forces in Armenia, Kirill Kiselev, insisted
that security measures were adequate.
`This is a prohibited zone. They had no right to go there. Everyone is
very well you can't do that. There are signs in Russian and Armenian
at the entrances points saying no entry, but they ignored that that,'
he said.
After meeting Russian commanders from the base, Armenian defence
minister Seyran Ohanyan called for tighter regulation.
`It's very important that all the safety precautions are enforced on
every firing range in Armenia,' he said.
The defence ministry said it would assist the two boys' families, and
help the Russians secure the firing range.
`The exclusion zone needs to be clearly demarcated,' ministry
spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.
Opposition politicians went further, with Aram Manukyan, a member of
parliament from the Armenian National Congress, questioning the
responsibilities of the Russian military and their hosts.
`If the firing range belongs to the Russian military base, then who is
responsible for fencing it off? Who is supposed to ensure security and
erect warning signs?' he asked. `If they're allowing people to pasture
their animals there, then every time they hold military exercises,
they must demine the area. This incident occurred because of
indifference to these issues.'
Defence experts in Armenia said the Russians should act to ensure the
tragedy was never repeated.
`There shouldn't be mines there at all, said David Jamalyan, a member
of the Yerevan State University's strategic studies centre. `This area
now needs to be fenced off so that civilians can't stray in
accidentally.'
Village head Martirosyan, however, opposed the idea of placing fences
around the range, since that would leave the village short of
pastureland.
The Shirak Centre, a local non-government group, backed him up.
`It's completely wrong for this firing range to exist alongside
impoverished villages who are deprived of their land. If they now
decide to tighten up security and not to let farmers graze their
livestock there, it won't resolve the problem,' the centre's head
Vahan Tumasyan said.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenia-after-landmine-deaths-questions-about-russian-army-base