New military outposts under construction in Armenia’s south
Posted on November. 4. 2021
YEREVAN, November 1. /ARKA/. New military outposts are under construction in Armenia’s southern province of Syunik, which borders Iran and Azerbaijan, the Deputy Head of the National Security Service (NSS) Aram Hakobyan said on Monday when speaking at a parliamentary discussion on the draft 2022 state budget.
The Armenian government plans to increase the 2022 budget of the National Security Service by about 23 percent from 2021 to about 42.7 billion drams.
According to Aram Hakobyan, the conditions of military service will be improved. He said conscripts are now also involved in the protection of the Armenian state borders.
“A fairly large number of conscripts serve there now and for this reason we have increased the funds earmarked for the purchase of medicines,” the deputy head of the National Security Service said.
Hakobyan said the new outposts will be ready in the near future. After that, he said, good conditions will be provided for the servicemen who currently live in temporary houses and serve in open spaces.
After the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan signed a statement on the cessation of all hostilities in Artsakh on November 9, 2020, more than 190 settlements of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent seven regions came under the control of Azerbaijan.
As a result, the borders of the Syunik region in the south of Armenia and the Gegharkunik region in the east appeared in close proximity to the Soviet-time border of Azerbaijan.
According to reports from Syunik, Azerbaijani forces have set up a police checkpoint on a section of the road between Goris and Kapan and stop and reportedly tax Iranian commercial trucks passing through it.
The checkpoint is on a section of a strategic road that connects Armenia with Iran. Armenian forces had pulled out of that road section after the end of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh last autumn. Now Azerbaijani forces control a 21-kilometer stretch of the highway. The other sections of the highway, which is Armenia’s sole transport link with Iran are patrolled by Russian soldiers and border guards.