Armenia: Transit Route Concerns

Following concerns about trade in light of the recent war in Georgia, there are now apparently problems with Russia supplying its military bases in Armenia. EurasiaNet reports that alternative routes are now being used, including one through a very surprising transit country indeed — Azerbaijan.

Raising a serious obstacle to Russia’s military presence in Armenia, Georgia appears to have closed its airspace to transport planes making vital shipments to Russian troops stationed in the neighboring South Caucasus state.

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Policymakers and defense experts in Yerevan, however, downplay the significance of the apparent ban on the transit of Russian military personnel and cargos through Georgian territory. They insist that it does not call into question the continued deployment of some 5,000 Russian troops at the western Armenian town of Gyumri, a key element of Armenia’s national security doctrine.

“Georgia no longer provides us with air corridors,” Colonel Ashot Karapetian, deputy commander of the Russian military base in Armenia, told EurasiaNet. “Our supplies are now being carried out via Azerbaijan and Iran.”

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A Russian diplomatic source confirmed the information. The Georgian ban, the source said, also applies to Russian civilian aircraft flying to and from Armenia. Russia’s defense and foreign ministries refused to comment officially, however. Georgia’s defense ministry also declined comment.

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Armenian officials, however, seem confident that Moscow will not close its Armenia base in the foreseeable future despite the serious logistical problems posed by the closure of Georgian air space.