On 21-22 February 2011, a European delegation paid an official visit to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The visit was an opportunity for EU Ambassadors and representatives to discuss all aspects of their relationship with Nakhchivan in the context of the Eastern Partnership, since the autonomous republic is a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan separated from the rest of the country by a strip of Armenian territory.
Although Nakhchivan is not officially claimed by Yerevan, some Armenian political groups claim that the territory of the Azerbaijani autonomous republic should belong to Armenia, as huge Armenian religious and cultural remnants are witness of the historic presence of Armenians in the region. Turkey, which shares an 11-kilometer border with Nakhchivan, has long acted to provide support to ensure that the landlocked territory of 400,000 people survived. Both Ankara and Baku cite the 1921 Treaty of Kars, which defined Nakhchivan as part of Azerbaijan, as the basis for this support. Today, that relationship has become less about Nakhchivan’s immediate survival, and more about long-term projects for the exclave, especially in the wider context of energy cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Over 400 modern ground- and sea-based ICBMs, 8 ballistic missile submarines, about 20 general purpose attack submarines, over 50 surface ships and some 100 military-purpose spacecraft, over 600 modern aircraft, including fifth-generation fighters, more than a thousand helicopters, 28 regimental sets of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, 38 division sets of Vityaz air defense systems, 10 brigade sets of Iskander-M tactical missile systems, more than 2,300 modern tanks, some 2,000 self-propelled artillery systems and guns, and more than 17,000 military vehicles. These are the figures of the massive rearmament program announced by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin in an article published on February 20 by state-owned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
