Azeri Armed Forces

Armed Forces of Armenia

The Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia represents the Army, Air Force, Air Defense, and Border Guard. It was partially formed out of the former Soviet Army forces stationed in the Armenian SSR(parts of the Transcaucasian Military District). Being a landlocked country, Armenia has no navy.

The Commander-in-Chief of the military is the President of Armenia, currently Serzh Sargsyan. The Ministry of Defense is in charge of political leadership, currently headed by Seyran Ohanian, while military command remains in the hands of the General Staff, headed by the Chief of Staff, who is currently Lieutenant-General Yuri Khatchaturov. Armenia established a Ministry of Defense on 28 January 1992. Border guards subject to the Ministry patrol Armenia's borders with Georgia and Azerbaijan, while Russian troops continue to monitor its borders with Iran and Turkey. Since 1992, Armenia has been a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which acts as another deterrent to Azeri military intervention over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was ratified by the Armenian parliament in July 1992. The treaty establishes comprehensive limits on key categories of military equipment, such as tanks, artillery, armored combat vehicles, combat aircraft, and combat helicopters, and provides for the destruction of weaponry in excess of those limits. Armenian officials have consistently expressed determination to comply with its provisions and thus Armenia has provided data on armaments as required under the CFE Treaty. Despite this, Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of diverting a large part of its military forces to Nagorno-Karabakh and thus circumventing these international regulations. Armenia is not a significant exporter of conventional weapons, but it has provided support, including material, to the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Overview

In March 1993, Armenia signed the multilateral Chemical Weapons Convention, which calls for the eventual elimination of chemical weapons. Armenia acceded to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapons state in July 1993. The U.S. and other Western governments have discussed efforts to establish effective nuclear export control systems with Armenia and expressed satisfaction with Armenia's full cooperation. In 2004 Armenia sent 46 non-combat troops to Iraq, which included bomb-disposal experts, doctors, and transport specialists.

General Staff

The Armenian Armed Forces are Headquartered in Yerevan, where most of the general staff is based. Currently headed by Chief of Staff General Seyran Ohanyan, the General Staff is responsible for operational command of the Armenian Military and its three major branches.

History

Army

Under the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, in 2001 Armenia declared 102 T-72 tanks, 72 heavy howitzers and 204 armoured vehicles (most of them infantry fighting vehicles and Armoured personnel carriers). With respect to military hardware the Treaty on Conventional Arms in Europe does not apply to, Armenia has up to 700 armoured vehicles. Its artillery comprises 225 pieces of 122 mm and larger calibers, including 50 multiple rocket launchers.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia has followed a policy of developing its armed forces into a professional, well trained, and mobile military. The armed forces of Armenia are seen as the most powerful of the three Caucasian countries (the other two being Georgia and Azerbaijan) by leading military figures both in Russia and the West.

Armenia's Military is presently expanding , having had its budget recently augmented by 10 percent. Its active forces now number about 60,000 soldiers, with an additional reserve of 32,000, and a "reserve of the reserve" of 350,000 troops. Armenia is prepared to mobilize every able-bodied man between the age of 15 and 49, with military preparedness most of all focused on potential attacks by Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The Army is functionally divided into Active and Reserve Forces. Their main functions include deterrence, defense, peace support and crisis management, humanitarian and rescue missions, as well as social functions within Armenian society.

The Active Forces mainly have peacekeeping and defensive duties, and are further divided into Deployment Forces, Immediate Reaction, and Main Defense Forces. The Reserve Forces consists of Enhancement Forces, Territorial Defense Forces, and Training Grounds. They deal with planning and reservist preparation, armaments and equipment storage, training of formations for active forces rotation or increase in personnel.

During peacetime the Army maintains permanent combat and mobilization readiness. They become part of multinational military formations in compliance with international treaties Armenia is a signatory to, participate in the preparation of the population, the national economy and the maintenance of wartime reserves and the infrastructure of the country for defense.

In times of crisis the Army's main tasks relate to participation in operations countering terrorist activities and defense of strategic facilities (such as nuclear power plants and major industrial facilities), assisting the security forces in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal armaments traffic and international terrorism.

In case of low- and medium-intensity military conflict the Active Forces that are part of the Army participate in carrying out the initial tasks for the defense of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.

In case of a military conflict of high intensity the Land Forces, together with the Air Force, Air Defense and Border Guards, form the defense group of the Armenian Armed Forces aiming at countering aggression and protection of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.

Air Force

The Armenian Air Force relies upon the 30 MiG-29s of the Russian 102nd Military Base at Gyumri, its own smaller fleet of 15 Su-25 ground attack planes, a single MiG-25 jet fighter and twelve Mi-24 gunship helicopters (out of a total of 35) for the defense of Armenian airspace. The Armenian Air Force also has two Il-76 cargo planes for the transport of soldiers and materials.

According to UN webpage, Disarmament section, in September 2005 the Armenian Air Force had acquired 10 Su-25 ground attack planes from Slovakia.

Armenian anti-aircraft defense consists of an anti-aircraft missile brigade and two regiments armed with 100 anti-aircraft complexes of various models and modifications, including the SA-8, M79 Osa, Krug, S-75, S-125, SA-7 and Russian operated S-300 at the Russian 102nd Military Base. There are also 24 Scud ballistic missiles with eight launchers. Numerical strength is estimated at about 3,000 servicemen, with plans for further expansion.

Military of Karabakh

In addition to forces mentioned above, there are 20,000 soldiers defending Nagorno-Karabakh, an unrecognized Armenian republic which seceded from Azerbaijan in 1991. They are well trained and well equipped with the latest in military software and hardware. According to the Azerbaijani government, the Karabakh army's heavy military hardware includes: 316 tanks, 324 armored vehicles, 322 artillery pieces of calibers over 122 mm, 44 multiple rocket launchers, and a new anti-aircraft defense system. Nagorno Karabakh is not a party to the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty and thus is not bound by its limitations. The specific details concerning the Karabakh military's weapons holdings are not known and thus the above are only estimates made by Azerbaijan.

Russia

Russia has a military base in Armenia which is the Russian 102nd Military Base. Russia stations an estimated 5,000 soldiers of all types in Armenia, including 3,000 officially reported to be based at the 102nd Military Base located in Gyumri. In 1997, the two countries signed a far-reaching friendship treaty, which calls for mutual assistance in the event of a military threat to either party and allows Russian border guards to patrol Armenia’s frontiers with Turkey and Iran. Until recently, in early 2005 , the 102nd Military Base had 74 tanks, 17 battle infantry vehicles, 148 armored personnel carriers, 84 artillery pieces, 30 Mig-29 fighters and several batteries of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. In the last eighteen months, however, a great deal of military hardware was moved to the 102nd Base from the Russian military bases in Batumi and Akhalkalaki, Georgia. Russia is Armenia's closest ally and the only country that has a military base stationed in the country. Since 1992 Armenia is in a military alliance with Russia and 5 other ex-soviet countries called CSTO. Russia also supplies weapons at the relatively lower prices of the Russian domestic market as part of a collective security agreement since January 2004.

Military training

Officer training is another sphere of Russian-Armenian military cooperation. In the first years of sovereignty when Armenia lacked a military educational establishment of its own, officers of its army were trained in Russia. Even now when Armenia has a military college on its own territory, the Armenian officer corps honors the tradition and is trained at Russian military educational establishments. Currently, 600 Armenian servicemen are being trained in Russia. In Armenia as of 1997, the training was conducted by the "In the name of Marshal Bagramyan" Training Brigade.

Future cooperation

At the first meeting of the joint Russian-Armenian government panel for military-technical cooperation that took place during autumn 2005, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov reported that, Russian factories will participate in the Armenian program of military modernization, and that Russia is prepared to supply the necessary spare parts and equipment. Yerevan and Moscow have further plans to develop closer ties.

NATO

Armenia participates in NATO's Partnership for Peace (PiP) program and it is in a NATO organization called Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC). Armenia is in the process of implemention of Individual Partnership Action Plans (IPAPs) which is a program for those countries that have the political will and ability to deepen their relationship with NATO. Cooperative Best Effort exercise (the first where Russia was represented) was run on Armenian territory in 2003.

Greece

Greece is Armenia's closest ally in NATO and the two cooperate on multiple issues, thus a number of Armenian officers are trained in Greece every year, and military aid/material assistance has been provided to Armenia. In 2003, the two countries signed a military cooperation accord, under which Greece will increase the number of Armenian servicemen trained at the military and military-medical academies in Athens.

In February 2003, Armenia sent 34 peace keepers to Kosovo where they became part of the Greek contingent. Officials in Yerevan have said the Armenian military plans to substantially increase the size of its peace-keeping detachment and counts on Greek assistance to the effort. In June 2008, Armenia sent 72 peacekeepers to Kosovo for a total of 106 peacekeepers.

Baltic States

Lithuania has been sharing experience and providing consultations to the Armenian Defense Ministry in the field of democratic control of armed forces, military and defense concepts and public relations since 2002. Started in 2004, Armenian officers have been invited to study at the Lithuanian War Academy and the Baltic Defense College in Tartu, Estonia. Lithuania covers all study expenditures. In early 2007, two Armenian officers for the first time took part in a Baltic lead international exercise, Amber Hope, which was held in Lithuania.

United States

The United States has been steadily upping its military clout in the region. In early 2003, the Pentagon announced several major military programs in the Caucasus. Washington's military aid to Armenia in 2005 amounted to $5 million, and in April 2004, the two sides signed a military-technical cooperation accord, which some American military analysts believe implies the use of Armenian airfields by the U.S. Air Force in the War on Terror. In late 2004, Armenia deployed a unit of 46 soldiers, which included a logistic, medical and support soldiers to Iraq in support of the American-led Coalition. And in 2005, the United States allocated $7 million to modernize the military communications of the Armenian Armed Forces.

Peacekeeping operations

Currently Armenia is involved in peacekeeping operations in Kosovo. There are also arguments within the government to send peacekeepers to Lebanon since there is large number of Armenians living there.

Kosovo

There are currently 70 Armenian soldiers serving in Kosovo as peacekeepers.

Armenia joined the peacekeeping activities in Kosovo in 2004. Armenian "blue helmets" serve within the Greek battalion. The relevant memorandum was signed on September 3, 2003 in Yerevan and ratified by the Armenian Parliament December 13, 2003. The 6th shift of Armenian peacekeepers departed for Kosovo on November 14, 2006. In 2008, the Armenian National Assembly voted unanimously to double the peacekeeping force in Kosovo by sending an extra 34 peacekeepers to the region, increasing the total number of peacekeepers in the region to 68. Artur Aghabekian, chairman of the Armenian parliament’s committee on defense and security, cited the need to double the forces in order to help Kosovo achieve full international recognition adding that that would set an important precedent for the full recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Iraq

After the end of the invasion of Iraq, Armenia deployed a unit of 46 peacekeepers under Polish command. Armenian peacekeepers were based in Al-Kut, 62 miles from the capital of Baghdad. On July 23, 2006 the fourth shift of Armenian peacekeepers departed for Iraq. The shift included 3 staff commanders, 2 medical officers, 10 combat engineers and 31 drivers. Throughout the length of the deployment, there was one Armenian wounded and no deaths. The Armenian government extended the small troop presence in Iraq by one year at the end of 2005 and 2006. On October 7 2008, Armenia withdrew its contingent of 46 peacekeepers. This coincided with the withdrawal of the Polish contingent in Iraq.