Armenian Army
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| Հայկական Բանակ Haykakan Banak Armenian Army |
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|---|---|
| Active | January 28, 1992 - present |
| Country | Republic of Armenia |
| Role | Ground warfare |
| Engagements | Nagorno-Karabakh War; peacekeeping roles in Kosovo and Iraq |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
-Harut Kassabian -Vazgen Manukyan -Arkady Ter-Tatevosyan |
The Armenian Army is the largest branch of the Armed Forces of Armenia and consists of the ground forces responsible for the country's land-based operations. It was established in conjunction with the other components of Armenia's military on January 28, 1992, several months after the republic declared its independence from the Soviet Union. The army's first head was the former deputy of the Soviet chief of staff, Norat Ter-Grigoryants. In compliance with its strategic allies, Armenia has sent over 1,500 officers to be trained in Greece and Russia.[1]
Since the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, Armenia has committed many elements of the army to help bolster the defense and defend the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh from a possible renewal of hostilities with neighboring Azerbaijan. . The platoon sized unit of three squads has been serving in Kosovo as a part of the KFOR peacekeeping force since February 2004.
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[edit] History
The Armenian army's history is described to have gone through three different stages.[1] It entered the first stage in February 1988, from the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict where Armenian militias were formed to combat growing hostilities in the region against similar Azeri units with the impending break of the Soviet Union. The second phase of the development of the army began in 1992, several months after Armenia had declared its independence. Ter-Grigoryants and other civilian officials in the Armenian Ministry of Defense including Vazgen Manukyan and Vazgen Sargsyan sought to establish the army to be a "small, well-balanced, combat-ready defense force."[2]
Most of the army's staff officers were members of the former Soviet military as an estimated 5,000 Armenians were serving as high level officers in it prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union.[3] Almost immediately after its independence, Armenia was embroiled in the Nagorno-Karabakh War with neighboring Azerbaijan. Intending to establish a force of 30,000 men, the army's standing force increased to 50,000 by early 1994. During the war, the military remained on high alert and bolstered defenses in the region of Zangezur, opposite of the western Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan. Purported artillery bombardment in May 1992 from the region led to skirmishes between the two sides including the Armenian army's incursion into several of the villages. Since 1994, the army has taken an active role in ensuring the defense of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in conjunction with its eponymous defense force.
On February 12, 2004 Armenia deployed a platoon-sized unit (three squads) was deployed to Kosovo as a part of the Greek peacekeeping battalion. The unit, known as the Peacekeeping Forces of Armenia, is headquartered in Camp "REGAS FEREOS" as a part of the Multi-National Task Force East and is tasked with maintaining vehicle check points, providing security for the base but also serves as a quick reaction force and crowd and riot control.[4]
In the autumn of 2004, the Armenian government approved to dispatch a 46-man contingent from the army consisting of sappers and engineers under Polish command as part of the Multinational force in Iraq. On November 10, 2006 Senior Lieutenant Georgy Nalbandyan was injured in a mine explosion in Iraq but survived after being transported for surgeries to a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany near Ramstein Air Base.[5]
[edit] Organization
[edit] Operational Forces
[edit] Academies
- Monte Melkonian Military Academy in Martuni, Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh
- Vazgen Sargsyan Military Academy
[edit] General Staff
- Colonel-General Mikael Harutyunyan - Defense Minister
- Colonel-General Gurgen Daribaltayan — Deputy head of Chief of Staff and special military adviser to current president, Robert Kocharyan
- Colonel-General Harut Kassabian - Commader of Capital Guard
- Lieutenant-General Aghik Myurzabekyan
- Lieutenant-General Arthur Aghabekyan
- Lieutenant-General Yuri Khachaturov
- Lieutenant-General Gurgen Melkonyan
- Lieutenant-General Roland Kereshyan
[edit] Vehicle inventory
Much of the Armenian Army equipment comes from the 15th and 164th Motor Rifle Divisions of the Soviet Union.
[edit] Main Battle Tanks
- T-72 Main Battle Tank - 102
- T-55 Main Battle Tank
[edit] Light armor
- BMD-1 Airborne infantry fighting vehicle - 10
- BMP-1 Infantry fighting vehicle
- BMP-2 Infantry fighting vehicle - 158
- BTR-70 Armoured personnel carrier - 20
- BTR-80 Armoured personnel carrier - 50
- BRDM-2 including anti-tank, anti-personnel and anti-aircraft variants
- MT-LB Ampibious Armoured personnel carrier -75
multiple rocket launcher units.
[edit] Anti-aircraft defense
[edit] Artillery
- BM-21 GRAD Multiple rocket launcher - 50
- 2S3 Akatsiya Self-propelled artillery - 30
- 2S1 Gvozdika Self-propelled artillery - 10
- 2A36 Giatsint Towed howitzer
- D-30 Towed howitzer - 60
- WM-80 Multiple rocket launcher- 8
[edit] References
- ^ a b Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Armenia General History of the Armenian Army. Retrieved January 31, 2006
- ^ Curtis, Glenn E. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia Country Studies. Federal Research Division Library of Congress: Washington D.C., 1995
- ^ Mirsky, Georgiy I. On Ruins of Empire: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Former Soviet Union. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997 p. 63 ISBN 0-3133-0044-5
- ^ Kosovo Force. KFOR Contingent: Armenia. KFOR. Last updated January 24, 2006. Retrieved February 9, 2007.
- ^ Public Radio of Armenia. Armenian peacekeeper to undergo two more surgeries. November 20, 2006. Retrieved February 1, 2007.
[edit] See also
- Military history of Armenia
- Armed Forces of Armenia
- Armenian Air Force
- Armenian Air Defense
- Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army
[edit] External links
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