A few days after the 9/11 Armenian President Robert Kocharian met U.S. Ambassador Michael Lemmon and said Armenia was ready to support the efforts aimed at the elimination of the threats of international terrorism.

In the interview, published the next day in the Russian newspaper “Kommersant”, Robert Kocharian said: “International community should actively cooperate to fight against international terrorism. A new situation has aroused - we can realize it. But what to do - that is what we all are thinking about.”

On September 21, speaking at a formal meeting dedicated to the 10th anniversary of independence of Armenia, the President said: “The events of September 11th in the USA shook the whole world with their cruelty. We mourn with America and think that evil should be punished. We are ready for cooperation within our modest possibilities. Terrorism becomes an ideology in its most outrageous displays. Armenia itself has experienced its consequences. We are certain that in the struggle against this evil, the world community is in need of joint coordinated efforts.”

The issue of fight against terrorism was the main highlight at the summit of the heads of Collective Security Treaty (CST) member-countries, held in Yerevan May 2011. The Yerevan statement by the heads of CST member-countries expressed “serious concern about the growing threat of international terrorism and extremism, which gains coordinated nature.”

NKR Foreign Minister Naira Melkumian told CNA agency in an interview in September, 2001:

“One shouldn’t forget that Osama bin Laden and his followers in the Caucasian region have frequently mentioned Nagorno Karabakh as one of their targets in their struggle to establish order which would correspond to what is called Islamic radicalism. They considered the population of Nagorno Karabakh as an object for destruction, with the aim of subsequent establishment of Islamic laws there. From this viewpoint, we certainly count on the neutralization of these calls, which some day might find their manifestation in Karabakh as well. We conceivably support all the efforts in this direction.”

A year after the 9/11 Armenia hosted Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) seminar entitled “Combat against international terrorism: perspectives of regional cooperation in the South Caucasus”. Addressing the seminar Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Tatul Margarian said: “there is a threat of international terrorism in the region of the South Caucasus”.

Over the past years Armenia took different measures to fight against international terrorism. We present you some of them:

• In February 2005 Armenia joined the operation in Iraq. Today the mission in Iraq is over and the main forces of the Armenian peacekeepers are concentrated in Afghanistan. This year Armenian authorities decided to triple the number of Armenian servicemen taking part in the ISAF mission under the German Command. And unlike the Iraq case, where Armenia was presented with drivers and de-miners, Yerevan sent combat units to Afghanistan.

• In May 2007 the Armenian government has announced its decision to become a partner-state of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism and in July 2008 Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed a Joint Action Plan on Combating Smuggling of Nuclear and Radioactive Materials.

• In June 2007 The Financial Monitoring Center of the Central Bank of Armenia became a full member of Egmont Group, which unites the financial intelligence services of over 100 countries of the world for the joint struggle against laundering of illegal incomes and financing terrorist activities.