InternationalIf you want peace you must train well
NATO military training concludes successfully in Armenia
Published: Saturday October 25, 2008
Soldiers from the United States (far right), Armenia (far left), and other countries at the opening ceremony of NATO exercises in Armenia, in the shadow of Mount Ararat, September 29, 2008.
. Photo: Armen Hakobyan for the Armenian Reporter
Yerevan - Driving along dirt roads, the column of military trucks, which had transported humanitarian aid to the village, returned to the peacekeeping forces base. Suddenly an all-terrain vehicle emerged and raising a plume of dirt squeezed in between the column and the advance guards, which was about half a kilometer ahead. The sound of an explosive was heard, smoke started to rise and automatic rifle shots began. Two snipers who were lying in ambush on nearby hills started to fire on the column of vehicles. The soldiers, who came out of the advance guard vehicles, quickly oriented themselves to the situation, took their positions and with covering shots started approaching their endangered comrades. While resisting the ambushing terrorists, they called for help from the rapid-response team, which quickly arrived with three armed vehicles and the terrorists were finally surrounded and rendered harmless.
It can be said that the operation ended successfully, especially if we take into consideration that soldiers from 14 countries were included in the peacekeeping forces. They spoke to one another and exchanged data and commands in multi-accented English.
This "military" action took place on October 19, at the Armenian Defense Ministry's military training center close to Balahovit village, within the framework of NATO's Cooperative Longbow/Lancer military trainings. The "explosion" was, of course, fake and the shots were blank cartridges. Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian, Commander Allied Land Component Command Headquarters Heidelberg, Lieutenant General Roland Kather (Germany), Deputy Commander Land Component Command Heidelberg Lieutenant General John D. Gardner (USA) and Armenian and foreign high-ranking military personnel and officers attentively followed the "war" from a nearby hill.
During a briefing with journalists, Lieutenant General Roland Kather noted that during a meeting that very morning he had thanked Mr. Ohanian, "as his efforts helped the Cooperative Longbow/Lancer military trainings to take place. This morning my Deputy, General Gardner confirmed that the Armenian government and the Defense Ministry have exerted every effort in order to ensure the success of the military trainings. These trainings proved that Armenia is ready to become a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace family and I can clearly announce: welcome to this family." General Kather had headed NATO's forces in Kosovo in 2006-2007 and had gotten to know the Armenian soldiers. According to the general, the professionalism and preparedness of Armenia's peacekeeping battalion had left an excellent impression.
As far as the Cooperative Longbow- 08 commander headquarters and Cooperative Lancer- 08 military trainings, during which hundreds of participants from 17 countries were welcomed in Armenia for about a month and a half are concerned, General Kather noted that the results were excellent. He once again noted that the political aim of these military trainings was the reinforcement of regional stability and peace and the development of level of cooperation between multi-national forces.
"Summarizing the results, today we can record with satisfaction that the military trainings served their purpose by guaranteeing the high standard of the mutually agreed cooperation between more than 700 representatives from a dozen countries. One of the important achievements of the military training was also the experience gained by the participants of mutual cooperation in similar situation," Mr. Ohanian said the next day during his speech at the official closing ceremony of the Cooperative Longbow/Lancer military trainings Vazgen Sarkissian military institute. He added, "These military trainings once again proved that differences in language and nationality and differing norms and approaches cannot hinder reaching universal goals. This is more than important, when the issue concerns such modern and universal issues, such as peacekeeping and guaranteeing international safety." The minister thanked the partner countries participating in the military trainings and all representatives of Armenia's different state departments for their successful participation.
Robert Simons, the Special Representative of NATO's General Secretary in the Caucasus and Central Asia had also come to participate in the closing ceremony of the military training. The President of Armenia, Serge Sargsian, had met him that day. According to the official statement, during the meeting the President had said that a European orientation continues to be one of the priorities of Armenia's foreign policies and cooperation with NATO is one of its important elements. According to Armenia's president, the partnership with the Euro-Atlantic alliance will continue and Armenia views this as a component in the security of the country. Robert Simons has evaluated the NATO-Armenia cooperation process as very successful and has noted that good preconditions exist for further development of relations.
