ARMENIA DENIES TURKISH REQUEST UNDER CFE TO INSPECT RUSSIAN TROOPS.

According to Turkish press reports, an Armenian diplomatic note December 9 turned down a Turkish request to inspect Russian military units based in Armenia for verifying their compliance with the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty. The reports said that Armenia had initially consented to allow a Turkish military team to perform the inspection, but retracted that consent in the follow-up note. Armenia’s refusal contrasted with Turkey’s acceptance of such inspections, as evidenced most recently December 11 when a Romanian military inspection team arrived to verify Turkey’s compliance with the CFE treaty. (16)

The CFE treaty provides for verification of compliance through on-site inspection by other treaty signatories at their request. Russia has repudiated CFE treaty limitations on the armaments it may deploy in the Caucasus, which were to have been complied with as of November 17. Russia has in this case avoided the onus of rejecting the inspection request by hiding behind Armenia as the sovereign state which hosts the Russian troops. Armenia and its brethren in Karabakh depend on Russian military support. According to Foreign Minister Vahan Papazian at a Yerevan briefing, "Armenia has rather developed military relations with Russia. We see no reason why we should ruin what took so much effort to build over the last few years."(17)

UN Confirms Turkmenistan’s Permanent Neutrality.