Epress.am News from Armenia
A Republic of Armenia Ministry of Defense inspection group left for Turkey on Nov. 22 with the aim of conducting inspections as outlined in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.
The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (or CFE Treaty), signed in Paris in 1990 by the 22 members of NATO and the former Warsaw Pact, is a landmark arms control agreement that established parity in major conventional forces/armaments between East and West from the Atlantic to the Urals.
The inspection group from Armenia aims to check the quantity of arms and military equipment as defined by the CFE Treaty in the military unit in the town of Doğubeyazıt (Bayazet) in eastern Turkey.
This is the Armenian group’s second visit to Turkey. In March 2010, the Armenian inspectors (within the of the Vienna Document 1999) checked the military units in Sarıkamış, Kars, Ardahan, and Iğdır. No evidence contradicting the Vienna Document was found, reports the RA Ministry of Defense.
The Vienna Document represents the latest review of the OSCE’s confidence- and security-building measures (CSBMs), which are designed to promote mutual trust and dispel concern about military activities by encouraging openness and transparency. They include provisions regarding the exchange and verification of information on the participating States’ armed forces, their defence policies and military activities.