ArmInfo. Artsrun Hovhannisyan, a Spokesman for the Armenian Ministry of Defense, responding to a number of public figures' "concern", provided legal explanations for sending a team of specialists to Syria. The explanations, as pointed out by Hovhannisyan, are addressed including to some international partners.
Earlier, on February 8, a group of Armenian specialists in humanitarian demining, medical personnel and ensuring the safety of the specialists themselves, a total of 83 people, arrived in the city of Aleppo in the Syrian Arab Republic to provide humanitarian specialized assistance to the Syrian people. According to the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, the Armenian specialists will carry out humanitarian activities related to humanitarian demining, mine awareness of the population, the provision of medical assistance in Aleppo, exclusively outside the zone of combat operations. As Artsrun Hovhannisyan wrote on his Facebook page, these explanations from the Armenian defense ministry are due to the involvement in a humanitarian mission of Center for Humanitarian Demining (SNCO), the Ministry of Defense of Armenia is an authorized body of this center. According to a certificate issued by the representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, a cooperation agreement was signed between the governments of Armenia and Syria on August 27, 2001, which was ratified on February 4, 2002 and entered into force on February 14, 2002.
The agreement, in particular, provides for the cooperation of the parties in other areas in the event of mutual agreement. The powers of the parties to comment on the provisions of the Agreement in a mutually acceptable way are also clearly established; including that the parties are obliged to observe the complete secrecy of the information exchanged.
Summarizing, Hovhannisyan writes that the regulations on sending by Armenia humanitarian specialists and personnel to ensure their personal safety to Syria comply with the Armenian legislation. At the same time, he pointed out that part of legal acts according to the laws of Armenia on state and official secrets are not subject to disclosure, moreover, their unauthorized publication implies criminal liability. Summarizing, Artsrun Hovhannisyan writes: "You can see in the photo that the first group is already in Aleppo. All the Armenian people are proud of the humanitarian aid provided to the people of Syria and our compatriots. A number of public figures must specify their positions: Is it just a concern or something more? ".