YEREVAN. – Armenia contributes greatly to international peacekeeping activities.

The Minister of Defense, Seyran Ohanyan, stated the aforesaid at Monday’s international peacekeeping forum being held in capital city Yerevan.

Ohanyan pointed to Armenia’s engagement in the international peacekeeping missions in Kosovo, Iraq—until 2008—, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and starting from this year, in Mali, too.

The minister stressed that Armenia underscores setting up a peacekeeping brigade.

“The Armed Forces of Armenia enhance [their] preparedness not solely thanks to daily work, but military exercises,” he said. “As case in point, the CSTO [i.e. the Collective Security Treaty Organization] military exercises concluded yesterday [i.e. Sunday] in Armenia.”

The defense minister also noted that the Armenian peacekeeping brigade is exemplary, and it can also serve as a training base.

“We know the importance of peace from experience,” stressed Seyran Ohanyan adding that Armenia is forced to restrain and punish the adversary—that is, Azerbaijan—every day.