US military aid to Armenia, Azerbaijan ‘varies depending on foreign policy choices’ – Lebanese-Armenian editor  

The United States’ military assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan may vary in size according to the administration’s constantly changing foreign policy priorities, the editor-in-chief of Aztag, a Lebanon-based Armenian newspaper, said on Sunday.

Commenting upon the military aid, offered to the two countries as part of the Building Partner Capacity program, Shahan Gantaharian noted that most of the allocations for Azerbaijan are intended for counter-terrorism measures, as well as fight against organized crime, drug trafficking, tans-border and martime border security, and military intelligence.

For the fiscal year 2018-2019, the Trump administration allocated $100 million to Azerbaijan and $7 million to Armenia. In 2018, Azerbaijan received $58.6 million as opposed to the $4.2 million worth military aid offered to Armenia.

“The amount of money signals the depth of problems in the specified areas. Politically however, the Iranian factor is largely noticeable, given especially that the appropriations go to border security strengthening. Clearly, the political calculations involve the multi-million Azeris’ issue in Iran, the general policy of Iran’s isolation and, with a certain probability, the need to keep Baku’s bridges open amid the current tensions with Ankara. I think Moscow’s current debates over giving Baku an observer status in the Collective Security Treaty Organization will also have a certain influence on budget generation,” Ghantharian told Tert.am.

Asked to comment on the Azerbaijani lobbyist organizations ability to succeed in circumventing Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act (which restricts the sale of weapons to  that country), the Lebaese-Armenian editor noted that “states always manage to find roundabout ways when facing the urgency of taking steps matching their own interests.”

“France, notwithstanding the legitimate obstacles, signs a weapons sale-and-purchase agreement with Baku, declaring that the weaponry sold will not be used against Artsakh. The chamber of the US House of Representatives adopted a resolution banning the delivery of specific weaponry to Baku as they might be used for shooting civilian aircrafts at the Stepanakert airport,” he added.

Ghantaharian also referred to US National Security Advisor John Bolton’s 2018 statement in Yerevan. particularly his call upon the the Armenian authorities to purchase US military equipment as a high-quality modernized product. “The three co-chairing countries [of the OSCE Minsk Group], accepting the preference and principle of an exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabrakh conflict, propose that the sides purchase military equipment on condition that they will not be used in this conflict. But the method for exercising control over that mechanism isn’t clear of course,” he admitted.