Photo by Thomas Tucker on Unsplash
In a story worthy of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle’s Detective Sherlock Holmes, according to the Armenian Minister of Internal Affairs Vahe Ghazaryan the Armenian military has somehow managed to lose 17 000 assault rifles from their armouries, writes Sarah Miller.
The main assault weapon of the Armenian military are Russian produced Kalashnikov rifles, and 17 000 Kalashnikovs would be enough to arm three and a half infantry brigades. The whole Armenian military is 65 thousand strong – so the missing weapons would be enough for a quarter of its entire forces. If the weapons were properly packed, there would be over 1 400 pretty large and heavy boxes (of 12 rifles each), which would take more than 10 military trucks to move.
According to Ghazaryan, the weapons went missing after the 2020 war when Azerbaijan liberated most of the Armenia occupied Karabakh region. They were not lost during the war, or captured by enemy troops – the assault rifles went missing after the conflict.
Ghazaryan also noted that he is “concerned about the issue related to weapons and ammunition”, as it might have “potential consequences for regional security and stability”. So, there is also ammunition missing, but nobody knows how much.
Where are these weapons now? Hiding 17 thousand assault rifles would be difficult in a country the size of Armenia, and the guns are probably not in the country anymore. They definitely did not leave Armenia through Turkish, Georgian or Azerbaijani borders. There is only one neighbouring country, which would be interested in purchasing such weaponry anywhere on the planet – Iran. Tehran supports different terrorist organisations and regularly supplies them with arms.
Russian-produced assault rifles have an added value for Iran. They are actually untraceable. Iran produces its own analogues of Kalashnikov – the KLF or KLS rifles. But they are easily identifiable by slight design differences, manufacturers’ markings and the fire selector instructions on the weapons. Supplying Russian manufactured weapons to Houthis, Hezbollah or HAMAS would suit Iran very well – because nobody could trace where they actually came from.
Armenia is an important part of the Iranian – Russian axis, due to Yerevan’s assistance in circumventing sanctions, and is a likely place to get such weapons.
Is it possible that the Kalashnikov rifles missing since 2020 from the Armenian military armouries could have reached HAMAS, and could have been used in the 7th October massacre in Israel? Who knows what may have happened to 17 thousand assault rifles and ammunition that disappeared in a country bordering Iran – the biggest known supplier of weapons to terrorists around the globe?
The Author, Sarah Miller, is the Middle East and African Editor for EU Political Report.
