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Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #745
July 22 2014
Yerevan Angry at Russian Arms Sales to Baku
President Sargsyan issues unprecedented criticism of Moscow's
readiness to supply long-term foe Azerbaijan.
By Tigran Gevorgyan - Caucasus
For the first time, the Armenian president has criticised Russia for
selling weapons to Azerbaijan, fuelling a boom in arms acquisitions
that his country cannot match.
"This is a very painful issue for us. Our nation is very concerned
about the fact that our strategic partner is selling weapons to
Azerbaijan," President Serzh Sargsyan said during an official visit to
Argentina on July 10.
Longstanding strategic allies Armenia and Russia are both members of
the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), and Moscow
maintains a large army base at Gyumri, some 120 kilometres north of
Yerevan.
Russia is also part of the three-member OSCE group mediating in the
Nagorny Karabakh dispute, but that has not stopped it selling large
quantities of weapons to Azerbaijan, a country that is still formally
at war with Armenia two decades after a ceasefire ended open
hostilities.
Samvel Lazarian, head of the arms control department at the Armenian
foreign ministry, told reporters that Moscow had failed even to inform
Yerevan of arms shipments to Baku.
"By continuing to arm itself at such pace, Baku is significantly
violating the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Baku
is violating it in three ways, with the number of tanks, armoured
vehicles and long-distance artillery systems," he said. "Armenia
issues regular warnings about this within the OSCE framework...
responsible for implementation of that treaty."
Azerbaijan has stepped up its military purchases in recent years.
According to Military Balance 2013, published by the London-based
International Institute for Strategic Studies, Azerbaijan's defence
budget last year was to 3.7 billion dollars, compared with just 447
million for Armenia.
Russia's arms industry has profited from this readiness to spend.
In August last year, Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev told a joint press
conference with President Vladimir Putin that he had signed four
billion US dollars worth of arms deals with Russia.
Two months earlier, the Moscow business daily Vedomosti quoted defence
ministry sources in saying that Russia had sold Azerbaijan armoured
vehicles, conventional artillery and multiple rocket systems plus 24
Mi-35 attack helicopters and 60 other helicopters, in sales worth up
to one billion dollars. (See also Neighbourhood Watches as Azerbaijan
Arms Up.)
In an interview with the Itar-Tass news agency published on May 23
this year, Konstantin Biryulin, head of the Russian agency for defence
technology cooperation, said 100 T-90C tanks had been delivered to
Azerbaijan under a deal signed in 2011. He said a further 100 of these
late-model tanks would be sold soon.
According to the United Nations register of conventional arms which
tracks officially-recorded arms transactions, Azerbaijan received 438
heavy artillery systems and 25 attack helicopters from Russia last
year, while Armenia got 35 tanks, 110 other armoured vehicles, 200
missiles and 50 launchers.
Despite the ongoing tensions between oil-rich, high-spending
Azerbaijan and poorer Armenia, senior Russian officials continue to
insist that defence sales are of no political significance.
On a 2013 visit to Armenia, Security Council secretary Nikolai
Patrushev argued that new arms deliveries would not change the
military balance in the region.
CSTO head Nikolai Bordyuzha similarly told journalists in Yerevan last
year that the sales were just "simple business deriving from our
economic interests".
Sargsyan's remarks this month represent the first public criticism of
Russia's policy of arming Azerbaijan. Analysts say rising tensions on
the ground have heightened the pressure on the government to speak
out.
In June and the first half of July, at least six Armenian servicemen
died on the state frontier with Azerbaijan and along the "line of
control" which has formed a front-line boundary around Karabakh since
1994. (See also Upsurge in Shootings on Azeri-Armenian Frontier.)
Not only is this a high level of losses, but experts say Yerevan is
disappointed at Moscow's apparent lack of concern about the casualty
figures.
"It's clear that there have been shifts in the stance of the Armenian
leadership," Stepan Safaryan, head of the Armenian Institute for
International and Security Affairs. "Whereas formerly, Yerevan
officially said that it trusted Moscow and that the Kremlin was
maintaining the balance of power... now they don't believe Moscow any
more."
Others argue that selling arms to both sides is part of a strategy of
imposing Russian influence in the South Caucasus.
"Why is the Kremlin selling such quantities of arms to Azerbaijan, and
thus violating its partnership with Armenia and neglecting its
responsibilities as a mediator in Karabakh?" asked Ruben Mehrabyan, an
expert from the Armenian Centre of Political and International
Studies. His answer - "Moscow has a single goal, to control Armenia
and Azerbaijan alike. Both countries are already dependent on Russian
defence shipments."
Tigran Gevorgyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/yerevan-angry-russian-arms-sales-baku
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #745
July 22 2014
Yerevan Angry at Russian Arms Sales to Baku
President Sargsyan issues unprecedented criticism of Moscow's
readiness to supply long-term foe Azerbaijan.
By Tigran Gevorgyan - Caucasus
For the first time, the Armenian president has criticised Russia for
selling weapons to Azerbaijan, fuelling a boom in arms acquisitions
that his country cannot match.
"This is a very painful issue for us. Our nation is very concerned
about the fact that our strategic partner is selling weapons to
Azerbaijan," President Serzh Sargsyan said during an official visit to
Argentina on July 10.
Longstanding strategic allies Armenia and Russia are both members of
the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), and Moscow
maintains a large army base at Gyumri, some 120 kilometres north of
Yerevan.
Russia is also part of the three-member OSCE group mediating in the
Nagorny Karabakh dispute, but that has not stopped it selling large
quantities of weapons to Azerbaijan, a country that is still formally
at war with Armenia two decades after a ceasefire ended open
hostilities.
Samvel Lazarian, head of the arms control department at the Armenian
foreign ministry, told reporters that Moscow had failed even to inform
Yerevan of arms shipments to Baku.
"By continuing to arm itself at such pace, Baku is significantly
violating the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Baku
is violating it in three ways, with the number of tanks, armoured
vehicles and long-distance artillery systems," he said. "Armenia
issues regular warnings about this within the OSCE framework...
responsible for implementation of that treaty."
Azerbaijan has stepped up its military purchases in recent years.
According to Military Balance 2013, published by the London-based
International Institute for Strategic Studies, Azerbaijan's defence
budget last year was to 3.7 billion dollars, compared with just 447
million for Armenia.
Russia's arms industry has profited from this readiness to spend.
In August last year, Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev told a joint press
conference with President Vladimir Putin that he had signed four
billion US dollars worth of arms deals with Russia.
Two months earlier, the Moscow business daily Vedomosti quoted defence
ministry sources in saying that Russia had sold Azerbaijan armoured
vehicles, conventional artillery and multiple rocket systems plus 24
Mi-35 attack helicopters and 60 other helicopters, in sales worth up
to one billion dollars. (See also Neighbourhood Watches as Azerbaijan
Arms Up.)
In an interview with the Itar-Tass news agency published on May 23
this year, Konstantin Biryulin, head of the Russian agency for defence
technology cooperation, said 100 T-90C tanks had been delivered to
Azerbaijan under a deal signed in 2011. He said a further 100 of these
late-model tanks would be sold soon.
According to the United Nations register of conventional arms which
tracks officially-recorded arms transactions, Azerbaijan received 438
heavy artillery systems and 25 attack helicopters from Russia last
year, while Armenia got 35 tanks, 110 other armoured vehicles, 200
missiles and 50 launchers.
Despite the ongoing tensions between oil-rich, high-spending
Azerbaijan and poorer Armenia, senior Russian officials continue to
insist that defence sales are of no political significance.
On a 2013 visit to Armenia, Security Council secretary Nikolai
Patrushev argued that new arms deliveries would not change the
military balance in the region.
CSTO head Nikolai Bordyuzha similarly told journalists in Yerevan last
year that the sales were just "simple business deriving from our
economic interests".
Sargsyan's remarks this month represent the first public criticism of
Russia's policy of arming Azerbaijan. Analysts say rising tensions on
the ground have heightened the pressure on the government to speak
out.
In June and the first half of July, at least six Armenian servicemen
died on the state frontier with Azerbaijan and along the "line of
control" which has formed a front-line boundary around Karabakh since
1994. (See also Upsurge in Shootings on Azeri-Armenian Frontier.)
Not only is this a high level of losses, but experts say Yerevan is
disappointed at Moscow's apparent lack of concern about the casualty
figures.
"It's clear that there have been shifts in the stance of the Armenian
leadership," Stepan Safaryan, head of the Armenian Institute for
International and Security Affairs. "Whereas formerly, Yerevan
officially said that it trusted Moscow and that the Kremlin was
maintaining the balance of power... now they don't believe Moscow any
more."
Others argue that selling arms to both sides is part of a strategy of
imposing Russian influence in the South Caucasus.
"Why is the Kremlin selling such quantities of arms to Azerbaijan, and
thus violating its partnership with Armenia and neglecting its
responsibilities as a mediator in Karabakh?" asked Ruben Mehrabyan, an
expert from the Armenian Centre of Political and International
Studies. His answer - "Moscow has a single goal, to control Armenia
and Azerbaijan alike. Both countries are already dependent on Russian
defence shipments."
Tigran Gevorgyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/yerevan-angry-russian-arms-sales-baku