Approximately a week ago one of the pro-government Russian news agencies released information, according to which to the agreement made in the framework of the Collective Security Pact of the CIC, Armenia will be enabled to build two military bases in the territory of Russia, specifically in the vicinity of Krasnodar and Dagestan. After that the Organization of the Collective Security Pact officially denied this information. “We don’t have any official information about the construction of Armenian military bases in the territory of Russia,” stated the press secretary of the Organization of the Collective Security Pact, Vitali Stugavets. Nevertheless, this semi-denied information caused quite active discussion in Armenia. “If in the near future the Armenian-Turkish relations are not regulated, the border is not opened and Armenia doesn’t have an opportunity to access the Black and Mediterranean Seas then Russia may provide us with alternative opportunities to access its Caspian and Black Sea military bases,” said the RPA deputy-chairperson Razmik Zohrabyan during his interview to one of the newspapers recently. He also added that this may be a great privilege for Armenia. “Thus, the Russians are hinting that if need they may make Armenia a key spot for the region in the military and economic meanings,” he mentioned by spontaneously refuting the allegations of the RA government that Armenia is already a key country in the region. Various experts expressed their views on this issue.
MP of the Heritage faction, political scientist Styopa Safaryan: These rumors were circulated not because that they were realistic but because they were trying to deliver a clear message to Azerbaijan after the latter made noise about the negotiations of Turkey and Russia. According to the rumors, Russia applied to Turkey to use the latter’s territory for its military bases deployed in Gyumri. In this regard Azerbaijan raised a big noise and the Turkish side denied that such an agreement was reached. Then the Azerbaijani side raised the idea of the Caspian Guard, which Russia considers a western initiative. This means that an effort was made to make Azerbaijan understand that if it behaves the same way and continues imposing the idea of the Caspian Guard it is not excluded that Russia may allow Armenia to deploy bases in its territory with the same principle as the Russian bases are deployed in Armenia. The venues of the possible deployment of bases were also interestingly mentioned. One of them was Dagestan, which is directly neighboring Azerbaijan and the next one – is a Black Sea city populated with Armenians. I think that in this regard there was a message to Armenia as well, which implied that if Armenia wishes it can strive for such a perspective. But I don’t think that there can be any serious results if Armenia gets involved in these serious political-tactical games. It is more essential that if Armenia accepts this challenge and proceeds in that direction at least in the level of discussions then our relations with Azerbaijan and Georgia deteriorate.
Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, former NA MP, and former head of the NA standing committee on foreign relations, member of the ANC: It is hard to tell what Zohrabyan meant by making such statements so you should probably ask him. But I find it totally absurd that Armenia deploys military bases in Krasnodar or Dagestan because of two simple reasons. First, it is not ever possible and secondly Armenia is not the country to deploy military bases in Russia. In general in the framework of the quick reaction forces of the Organization of Collective Security Pact Armenia plays less of a role than let’s say Kyrgyzstan. This means that the deployment of military bases outside of our country is senseless. The opposite may happen though. Russia may build the second base in Armenia. But all these rumors that were circulated a week ago seem absurd to me. It is either a bad joke or a result of bright imagination.
Ruben Safrastyan, Expert of Turkish studies: To be frank, I don’t quite understand what it means to have Armenian military bases in the Caspian and Black Seas regions. I don’t know what Zohrabyan meant by saying that. We don’t have any navy or marine forces. Secondly, why would we need such bases in Russia? I mean I just don’t get the point. Several days ago there was information that in the Northern Caucasus they may give us some territory in order to provide better security for the railways. But if we don’t have access to the Black or Caspian Seas what do we need military bases for?