The Joint Armenian-Russian Military Force Includes Armenia’s 5th Army Corps, Not the 4th

The Armenian media has been recently flooded with commentary and analysis on the Armenian-Russian joint military force.

The information backdrop behind this trend was the decision of the Russian government, which presented a proposal to the Russian president on signing an agreement on “Creating joint Russian and Armenian military forces” with the Armenian side. (Which was approved by President Putin).

This information in Armenia was perceived with some misinterpretation. Rumors spread that the Armenian-Russian joint military’s land component includes the 102nd Russian military base and 4th Army Corps of Armenia’s Ministry of Defense.

This information created a baseless chaos among Armenian analysts and experts. In reality, 4th Army Corps of Armenia’s Ministry of Defense is stationed in Armenia’s Vayots Dzor region, protecting the Armenia-Azerbaijan border at the Nakhichevan area. Adjoining this corps with Russian military base would mean that Russian soldiers would appear on Armenian-Azerbaijani border, which would seriously alter the geopolitical order in the region.

While, reports that the Armenian-Russian joint military will include the 4th Army Corps is just a misunderstanding. In reality, the Armenian-Russian joint military will have the 5th Army Corps, which is on the West – on the border with Turkey.

The point is that since July 2016, the joint military force is commanded by Major-General Andranik Makarian, who is the former commander of Armenia’s Ministry of Defense 4th Army Corps. This was the reason causing ruckus and the misinformation that it was 4th Army Corps included in the joint military force.