On July 24-25, 2000 the Armenian defense minister Serge Sargissian went on a working visit to Washington, where he met with US ex-defense minister William Cohen. It’s obvious that Washington is irritated by the fact of Russian border troops being located alongside the Armenian-Turkish border, as well as the Russian military unit location in Gyumri. The US military men
often talk about it with Armenian officials.
Mr. Sargissian clearly explained them why Russian frontier troops guard Armenian-Turkish border- reminding the years 1991-92, when the Karabagh war was just in its boom. We’d like to remind you that in March 1992 the president of Turkey of those times Turgut Ozal demanded from his administration to take up certain steps against ‘Armenians’ crimes’-threatening to stop Armenians’ victories by Turkish forces. In 1993, after Armenian armed forces captured Kelbayjar, Ozal hinting on the 1915 Genocide, announced that ‘Armenians didn’t learn lessons from Anatolia
accidents and the punishment they served there’. Then the Turkish president appealed to US president Bill Clinton for allowing him ‘to throw a couple of bombs on Armenia’. In Ankara they were seriously considering to implement the ‘Cyprus option’ against Armenia, and around 3,000 volunteer soldiers were transported to Nakhichevan. It is difficult to say how all this would end, if the commander of Russian armed forces’ general headquarters,
Marshall Shaposhnilov didn’t seriously warn Turkey, only after which Turkey canceled its plan of attacking Armenia.
Serge Sargissian also told the US military men that at the peak of Karabagh war Turkey brought its tanks near Armenian border for a show, and Russia was the only country that orally reprimanded Turkey. In his last news conference, answering AZG’s question about Russian soldiers located on Armenian-Turkish border, Mr. Sargissian said that: ‘Until the Turkish threat is present in our region, Russian soldiers will be guarding our border and Russian military units will be functioning in our country’.
We’ll bring another quote of Armenian official viewpoint concerning US-Armenian relations: ‘US treats Armenia friendly. Nevertheless, the presence of Russian troops in Armenia, the unregulated problems with Turkey and Karabagh conflict threatening Caspian pipelines is hurdling US strategic plans? implementation in the region’.
By Tatoul Hagopian
(Avedis)
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