Paper: Why Armenia sides with Assad in Syria’s civil war

[TomSea]

Paper: Why Armenia sides with Assad in Syria’s civil war
  8 Jun, 2019 16:22   translated articles

When Armenia sent a few dozen troops to support the Russian military mission in support of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad earlier this year, few eyebrows were raised. Thousands of foreign soldiers from powers as disparate as the United States and Turkey are already stationed in the country. A handful more sappers and medical officers from the embattled nation of the South Caucasus hardly represents a dramatic upset in the balance of power in war-torn Syria.

Officially, Yerevan claims its 80 non-combat personnel are in Syria in support of the sizeable ethnic Armenian community, which numbered 100,000 prior to the outbreak of war eight years ago. Tens of thousands have resettled in Armenia since the beginning of the war, making the small Caucasian state of three million one of the largest per capita recipients of Syrian refugees in Europe.

Yet thousands of Armenians still remain in Syria, mostly concentrated around ravaged Aleppo in the country’s north. Ensuring their welfare has been a priority for Yerevan, which has cultivated close links with Syria since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In an interview at his country’s embassy, Arman Kirakossian, the Armenian ambassador to the UK, pointed out to me that Armenia is “the sole state” to have continuously operated a consulate in Aleppo, even during the years of siege which preceded its capture by Syrian regime forces in 2016.

Read more at: http://www.nedaa-sy.com/en/articles/521