Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

[Haykakan]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

RUSSIA TO DOUBLE ARMENIA BASE CONTRACT STAFF

Russian base at Gyumri

RIA Novosti
19/06/2012
MOSCOW

Russia will double the number of contract personnel at its military
base in Armenia, a senior official said on Tuesday.

"The number of contract servicemen at the Russian base at Gyumri
will be doubled by the end of 2012," Col. Igor Gorbul, a spokesman
for Russia's Southern Military District, told reporters in Moscow.

Permanent staff numbers, however, will remain at the current 5,000,
Gorbul added.

Russia's parliament voted last year to extend the country's lease of
the base through 2044.

The base, near Armenia's border with Turkey, is part of the post-Soviet
Commonwealth of Independent States air defense system and is home to
S-300 anti-aircraft missiles and Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters.

[Vahram]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

What do we have here? Armenian Gov saying we will have a stronger response? That’s all fine and good but what is with all the extra Russian troops? Hmmm

Let us analyze this a little more, last time Armenia was kicking the baboon in the arse the toorks made a move on the Armenian border! This time Russia is putting more troops on the border ahead of the arse kicking exercise. So no more playing! Either the border with the baboon will be quite or there will be sever suffering inforced. Too long this game has been played, the game stops now!

It is enough! If they are goiing to play this game then the game is now over! The jig is up, no more slow bleed playing the game western style. The game just got serious

You want joojoo? Come and get some!

Lines have been drawn, warning is issued and the ball is in full swing! Shell we play a game?

[Vrej1915]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

The Topeka Capital-Journal. Հայերը սովորում են Կանզասի ազգային գվարդիայում

Հունիս 21, 2012 | 02:40
ԱՄՆ Կանզասի նահանգի Թոփիք քաղաքի պետական պաշտպանության շենքի կոնֆերանսների դահլիճում հունիսի 19-ին կայացել է Կանզասի ազգային գվարդիայի եւ Հայաստանի պաշտպանության նախարարության ներկայացուցիչների հանդիպումը: Այդ մասին գրում է ամերիկյան «The Topeka Capital-Journal»-ը:

Ամերիկյան երկու սպա, գեներալ-մայոր Իշխան Մաթեւոսյանը եւ գնդապետ Գեւորգ Հակոբյանը հանդիպել են Ազգային գվարդիայի գերագույն ղեկավարների հետ տեղեկատվության փոխանակման եւ Զինված ուժերի կատարելագործման նպատակով: «Մենք աշխատում ենք հայ զինվորականների հետ, Պաշտպանության նախարարության հետ, որպեսզի նրանք նոր հեծանիվ չհայտնագործեն:

Ազգային գվարդիայում մենք ունենք ավելի քան 400-ամյա փորձ»,- ասել է Ազգային գվարդիայի սերժանտ-մայոր Ջեյմս Մոբերլին:

Կանզասի Ազգային գվարդիայի եւ հայ զինվորականների միջեւ գործընկերությունն սկսվել է 2003 թ: Կողմերը փոխանակել են տեղեկատվություն եւ փորձ պաշտպանության, բժշկական օգնության եւ արտակարգ իրավիճակների կառավարման բնագավառներում:

Մաթեւոսյանը նշել է, որ ուրախ է համագործակցության համար Կանզասի գործընկերների հետ: Հասարակայնության հետ կապերի գծով տնօրենի տեղակալ Ստիվեն Դարսոնը հայտարարել է, որ Կանզասը նույնպես շատ բան է սովորել հայ գործընկերներից:

http://news.am/arm/news/110302.html

[Joseph]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Source:http://www.eurasianet.org/print/65579

Russia to Double Troops in Armenia


Following a pick-up in fatal gunfire exchanges [7]along the Nagorno-Karabakh frontline, Moscow has announced plans to double its troop strength in ally Armenia by the end of the year. [8] The upshot of the message was clear: Azerbaijan could face Russian guns if it attempts to push Armenian forces out of long-occupied Azerbaijani lands.

The new arrivals will be temporary -- the "permanent" troop presence at Gyumri, the northern Armenian site of Russia's 102nd Military Base, will stay at 5,000, according to Colonel Igor Gorbul, a spokesperson for Russia's Southern Military District, RIA Novosti reported [9] -- and will receive a higher salary and undefined benefits to whet their interest in sticking around.

They'll arrive at a base that's been a bit on the bustling side of late. Russian jets have been busy drilling in Armenian airspace [10], and, in March, Moscow held war games in Gyumri. Earlier on, the head of the Collective Security Treaty Organization -- a Russian response to NATO -- said that the Moscow-led alliance will protect Armenia from enemy attacks. “If unfriendly actions are taken against Armenia, all member states will provide relevant assistance to Armenia,” pledged CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha [11].

Officials in Baku countered that not all CSTO members would be willing to take on Azerbaijan. “The CSTO and Russia, in particular, should not help the occupant [Armenia], if Azerbaijan decides to free its lands,” said Faraj Guliyev, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament’s Committee for Defense and Security [12].

But as the 2008 war with Georgia showed, if Russia wants to get involved, it will -- and the results [13] can be disastrous.

As is its wont in the South Caucasus' separatist struggles, Moscow, though, wears two hats in the 24-year-long Nagorno-Karabakh conflict -- that of Armenia's longtime military ally and that of mediator (along with the US and France) between Armenia and Azerbaijan. While, like its fellow go-betweens, it espouses belief in a peaceful resolution [14], its buildup in Armenia suggests another belief as well -- speak softly, but carry a big stick. [15]


Links:
[1] http://www.eurasianet.org/taxonomy/term/2399
[2] http://www.eurasianet.org/voices/tamadatales
[3] http://www.eurasianet.org/taxonomy/term/2926
[4] http://www.eurasianet.org/taxonomy/term/2749
[5] http://www.eurasianet.org/taxonomy/term/2748
[6] http://www.eurasianet.org/taxonomy/term/2905
[7] http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65531
[8] http://armenia.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/208409/
[9] %C2%A0http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20120619/174124485.html%C2%A0
[10] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/wo...enia.html?_r=1
[11] http://times.am/?l=ru&p=7524
[12] http://news.day.az
[13] http://www.eurasianet.org/department...av081008.shtml
[14] http://www.armenialiberty.org/conten.../24619064.html
[15] http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65525

[burjuin]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Celebration dedicated to 20th anniversary of RA Police Forces formation

[arakeretzig]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

It looks fairly quiet in yerevan, no one is talking about the front line, maybe i'm late to the party.
Although, you do see quite often guys in uniform all the time in yerevan, it's a natural site i guess.

[Mher]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Europe’s risky tolerance of tension in the Caucasus

Published 19 June 2012 - Updated 20 June 2012


Military tensions have grown in recent weeks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Charles Tannock argues that the EU should take steps to diffuse the situation.

Charles Tannock is a member of the European Parliament from Britain.

"Almost unnoticed beyond the specialist foreign policy community, there have been around a dozen heavy incidents of exchanges of sniper fire and artillery shelling between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the last two months.

In this time, more than 10 soldiers have been killed, and those foreign policy pundits who still maintain the concept of "frozen conflicts" being dormant affairs that can be safely ignored should know that half of these incidents did not take place in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh itself, but at the recognised international borders between the two states, which are both part of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU's Eastern Partnership.

This recent escalation smacks of the rising tensions before the Georgian-Russian war in 2008. After years with numerous smaller incidents, the international community gets used to a certain instability, and while peace negotiations fail due to the lack of political will between the hostile parties, the frequency and gravity of the incidents slowly escalates and in spite of European "calls upon both sides" for restraint, real war actions can suddenly unfold. History appears to be repeating itself, but there are three main differences.

First, among Armenia and Azerbaijan, only Azerbaijan has an interest in mobilising troops at the risk of escalating to an outright actual war. While the situation between Russia and Georgia was more blurred, only Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his government openly and repeatedly threaten their neighbour with war, whereas Armenia does not and would logically have no such interest.

After decades of discrimination, the majority ethnic Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh sought independence during the fall of the Soviet Union. In 1991, when the young Republic of Azerbaijan used force to restore "order", the independence movement took up arms and with military assistance from Armenia proper they liberated Nagorno-Karabakh and the conflict carried on until the legally still binding cease-fire of Bishkek was signed in 1994.

Azerbaijan claims that these territories are occupied, but since Stalin allocated them in 1921 under Soviet rule (arbitrarily) to Azerbaijan, it has done nothing to convince the local Armenian population of the benefits of Azerbaijani rule. The only time most of the local people in Nagorno-Karabakh have felt to be living without fear of discrimination and with a relative physical security came after 1994, and thus neither Armenia nor the de-facto Nagorno-Karabakh Republic have any interest in the renewed use of force – as they would be fighting for what?

The second current difference is the potential scale of this possible war. It is very different from the Georgian situation in 2008, as Azerbaijan and Armenia could see bombs and rockets fall on their capitals and the large-scale destruction of key places of civilian infrastructure. In Azerbaijan, oil rigs and pipelines, vital to their petrodollar economy, are all within simple artillery range of the Karabakhi army, and Armenian rockets can easily reach the refineries on the Caspian shores near Baku.

These places have been the major vital financial resource for Azerbaijan's large defence budget, which, as President Aliyev proudly proclaimed, exceeds Armenia's total state budget and allows the possibility of "liberating Karabakh in 10 days".

In short, both sides can erase everything positive that has been built up in the past 20 years since independence. Armenia is in a close defence alliance with Russia, while Azerbaijan is supported by its ethnic "brother nation" Turkey.

Iran is at odds with Azerbaijan due to Azeri revanchist and irredentist claims on Iranian soil and fears international peacekeeping troops on its northern border, given its virtual pariah status over the Iranian nuclear quest. Georgia fears Russian troops spreading out in the South Caucasus to aid Armenia. It is most unlikely that such a war would be restricted simply to Karabakh.

Also knowing the complex local geography and huge natural resources, it is impossible to predict whose troops would finally end up exactly where. Only one thing is certain: the human tragedy and economic costs would dwarf anything seen in Europe, at least for the last 20 years since the Balkan wars. To add to further turmoil as the world is facing an economic slump, with the eurozone crisis and US and Chinese growth dampening, the expected collapse of Azerbaijani oil and gas supplies would cause a rapid rise in world-wide crude prices and strangle any green shoots hopes for renewed global economic growth.

The third main difference is the position of Europe. While the EU has traditionally been closer to Georgia than to Russia, the EU desperately seeks a balanced relation with both Armenia and Azerbaijan. After the above mentioned hostile incidents, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton and foreign ministers in the EU's capitals all "called upon both sides" to show restraint, despite clear evidence about which side had started the recent provocation.

Azerbaijani state-controlled media reported that "Azerbaijani armed forces prevented one more provocation of the Armenian army" and that "it was identified that the Armenians were carrying out digging work along the front line" (the internationally recognised state border).

One might assume that the Armenians are allowed to dig on their own territory as much as they like and that "preventing" such a "provocation" with the disproportionate use of artillery fire, as it happened on the 25 April in the Tavoush region, might have sparked an international outcry. And even though ever since the Eurovision song contest (held in Azerbaijan's capital), most of Europe is now better informed about the undemocratic nature of the government in Baku, no Belarus-type EU sanctions have been threatened or even discussed.

The EU today possesses all the instruments necessary to make a difference. If we have learnt anything from the Georgian war of 2008, we must now use them to avert the possibility of the worst horror scenarios occurring in our near eastern neighbourhood.

The EU should clearly threaten sanctions against anyone unilaterally using disproportionate force in this conflict, and we must insist on the removal of snipers and on having EU observers along the line of contact and the state borders. Incidentally, Armenia has already agreed to this.

Before signing the next oil trade treaty with Baku, this should be the EU condition, or we might soon have very different prices to pay for oil and more importantly a tragic human catastrophe in Europe's east with large-scale casualties. In addition, there could be large flows of refugees heading in our direction with all that this might mean in economic terms in terms of additional burdens on our already stretched public resources."

http://www.euractiv.com/global-europe/europe-risky-tolerance-war-escal-analysis-513406

[argin]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Info on Azeri “regaining control of three villages” false

June 21, 2012 - 12:45 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - The information suggesting Azeri armed forces allegedly “regained control of three villages of Ghazakh province” disseminated by Azerbaijani websites is not true to fact, Armenian Defense Ministry press service representative said.
“No such a thing happened,” Mushegh Aghekyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter when commenting on a Defence.az publication.
“Azeri army succeeded to gain complete control of three villages (Yukhary Askipara, Gushchu Ayrum and Jafarli) of Ghazakh province. Heavy military equipment was deployed there. Through the villages were located in neutral zone, they were under RA armed forces’ control,” the agency’s message reads.
According to Defence.az, six Azerbaijani soldiers died in hostilities.

[argin]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Info on Azeri “regaining control of three villages” false

June 21, 2012 - 12:45 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - The information suggesting Azeri armed forces allegedly “regained control of three villages of Ghazakh province” disseminated by Azerbaijani websites is not true to fact, Armenian Defense Ministry press service representative said.
“No such a thing happened,” Mushegh Aghekyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter when commenting on a Defence.az publication.
“Azeri army succeeded to gain complete control of three villages (Yukhary Askipara, Gushchu Ayrum and Jafarli) of Ghazakh province. Heavy military equipment was deployed there. Through the villages were located in neutral zone, they were under RA armed forces’ control,” the agency’s message reads.
According to Defence.az, six Azerbaijani soldiers died in hostilities.

In my opinion azeris wanna excuse their early deaths by posing such a fake hostilitie as its mentioned above,it works for them since no ordinary person would show interest to visit the socalled regained villages to make sure for their victory cause its on contact line

[Vahram]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

There is a reason for all the Russian troops. If the baboon does not take it easy next little move by them is going to be met with heavy retaliation. If I’m reading the Armenian sources right when is the last time anyone heard the Armenian government say that they are not only going to retaliate heavily but are going to do “Preventative Measures”

Preventive measures means to me that we are going to take the action to them and not sit down and wait for a move by them. In addition there are other factors at play, Moscow does not want to get caught again like the Georgian scenario and is taking active steps to make sure this goes smoothly. The West is in economic turmoil and they don’t even know what to do with the problems they messed with from Libya,Syria,Afghanistan and Iraq. If after the economic turmoil is stabilized and the West is going to peruse it’s present course then it is more advantages for Moscow to finish whatever tasks need finishing now! The writing is simply on the wall and this chapter is going to close one way or another. Instead of sitting there like dummies action is taking place. It is the fact on the ground that matters and as far as can be seen there are more Russians in Armenia along the toork border. Last I checked we did not need active Russian troop participation in NKR. We can finish this now, no cost of blood to Moscow! The toork can't even blink this time, Moscow does not have to match tit for tat border moves of toorkish forces, it has already matched them in anticipation of this move so feck them!

What do you think Moscow is going to react to some Fig revolution someplace again? Already Russian troops and tanks are rolling into Syria on a reactionary measure! They are not going to take a back seat on Armenia and everything is already in place. The next person that pokes someone is going to be the Armenians. Since the West is so busy blaming us with the baboon each time the baboon starts something I guess everyone figured out we should just start something ourselves! After all what will you hear from the West that “Both Sides” should calm down?..HA HA HA

Shell we play a game? Lets start playing this fecking game!

This has been in the making for too long to backtrack now, lets get the show on the road. They are making up battles to hide 50+ dead. Even with this number the Armenians said this is not enough!

So you do the math! So what is a person that can't count do in this situation? Well read on

"Last week, military clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces on the Karabakh ceasefire line left several soldiers of both sides dead and wounded, with some unofficial reports putting the number of casualties over 20 (RIA Novosti, June 6). The Karabakh war ended in 1994 with a ceasefire, but all attempts to resolve the conflict have since failed. A serious resumption of hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia could lead to Russia demanding a “corridor” through Georgia to its troops in Armenia, that at present are supplied only by air. Compared to Syria, Russian interests in the Caucasus are indeed considered vital, and military capabilities in the area are formidable. The South Caucasus seems a much more probable destination for any possible future military excursion."

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=39494&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=d70d6880aa167cd3b5968876f85cb021