ARMS CONTROL IN THE SOUTHERN CAUCASUS
Abstract
Today, the Southern Caucasus, given its relatively small territory and population density, is among the most militarized parts of the world. Each of the three states in the region has a military capability not only comparable with but sometimes even superior to that of an average European nation (this applies mainly to Azerbaijan and to a lesser extent to Armenia and Georgia). Adding in the military capability of the unrecognized “countries” and state formations that emerged here following the breakup of the Soviet Union—the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, as well as the Russian military bases in the Transcaucasus—the picture will be even more formidable. The bloody ethnic and internal state conflicts in the region, caused by the disintegration of the Soviet Un-ion, and the emergence of independent states in the region with three national armies could not but precipitate a huge concentration of arms and military equipment here. Therefore, problems of arms control, limitation, and reduction are among the key aspects of security in the Southern Caucasus.
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References
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Disbanded in 2001.
Disbanded in 2001.
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See: Z. Lachowski, “Arms Control in the Caucasus,” in: Armament and Disarmament in the Caucasus and Central Asia,pp. 34-36.
See: Under the adapted CFE Treaty, the ceiling on IFVs in the AFV category for the South Caucasian states is limited to 135 units. The number of IFVs declared by Armenia in 2002 was 168, while after approximately 60 IFVs were transferred to Interior Ministry troops, it declared 110 IFVs (in 2003).
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