Cyprus-Armenia Military Cooperation against Turkish Aggression

• 06.10.2015, 10:30
• Liana Hovhannisyan
•  Europe,  Region,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World,  Analytics

The progress made so far in Cyprus-Armenia military cooperation can be considered as one of the key achievements in  the RA foreign policy. In this context the recent visit of Republic of Cyprus Minister of Defense Christoforos Fokaides to Armenia and the agreements reached during the visit gave a new impetus to the military cooperation between the two countries.

The visit of the Cyprus Defense Minister was marked by signing  Cooperation Plan for 2015 that includes bilateral trainings, exchange of professionals etc. During the meeting the sides also expressed their commitment to specify the  scope of cooperation during the upcoming session of the Armenian-Cypriot inter-governmental commission formed in the framework of military and military-technical cooperation.

During his visit Christoforos Fokaides suggested to organizing joint military exercises as a part of joint trainings, which was approved by the Armenian side.

In addition to the above mentioned achievements, to be able to completely understand the importance of Armenia-Cyprus military cooperation it is to be viewed in the following context.

Present non-constructive stance of Turkey towards Armenia, the vivid proof of which is the Armenian-Turkish closed border in the 21^st century, the stressed anti-Armenian policy of high-level Turkish officials, as well as the fact that Turkey is unwilling to take a responsibility for Genocide against the Armenians committed by its predecessors, come to prove that the Republic of Armenia cannot have any guarantee that it will not once more  become a victim of Turkish aggression. The threat becomes even substantial when it is viewed in the light of policy employed by Turkey in Karabakh conflict: its spare active support to Azerbaijani militaristic policy.

If viewed from this perspective it becomes important for the Republic of Armenian to take initiatives to insure its own security from Turkey’s future possible aggression. In this context deepening military cooperation  and the agreements reached on bilateral assistance  between Republic of Armenian and  Republic of Cyprus are to be considered  important steps.