Azeri Officer Denies Armenian

[Гвоздь]

Baku

Reports that the Karabakh army is the most battle-worthy in the former Soviet Union are a bluff, a senior Azerbaijani officer has said. He told Azerbaijani daily Ekho that, despite some shortcomings, the Azerbaijani army was far ahead of its Karabakh counterpart. The newspaper reprinted information from a Russian media monitoring agency, WPS, comparing the strengths of the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Karabakh troops. The Russian agency said that the Armenian and Karabakh army exceeded the Azerbaijani one in all respects except for fuel and lubricant resources. The following is a text of R. Orucov's report in Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho on 24 August entitled "Armenian military refuse to have anything to do with a dirty deal"; all ellipses are as published by the newspaper; subheads other than the first have been inserted editorially:

Meanwhile pro-Armenian disinformers extol military c.bility of "Karabakh army"

Ekho newspaper has already reported that customs employees at Sheremetyevo airport confiscated a large batch of ammunition, 110,000 cartridges of various calibres sent from Novosibirsk to Armenia, on 21 August. The Armenian media reported that the Armenian Defence Ministry hurried to deny categorically their involvement in this cargo yesterday afternoon. Arminfo and ARKA news agencies reported that the Armenian Defence Ministry press service told them that the ministry imported weapons to Armenia only legally and in accordance with agreements signed with various countries and relevant structures. "It had to be like this," the head of the information department of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry, Ramiz Malikov, said in response. "Armenia also denied the facts when Russia supplied to Armenia ammunition worth 1bn dollars in 1993-96," he said.

Political scientist Rasim Musabayov said that "cartridges for firearms could be purchased legally and nobody would have any special grievance. Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty, according to which this country could buy weapons from Russia at privileged prices. I think that there could be a different theory here and that theory could be more realistic: this deal was conducted by criminal or half-criminal structures and the weapons could be destined both for Hezbollah and Palestinian fighters, who currently need these weapons."

Comparative strength of Armenian, Azeri and Karabakh forces

Material by the WPS Russian media monitoring agency appeared on the Internet yester- This material contained figures for the armament of both sides Azerbaijan and Armenia and considered the scenario of possible developments if military operations were resumed.

"How c.ble are the troops of conducting military operations?" the WPS asks. "What is the correlation of military forces in the Karabakh theatre of war?

"According to Western sources, the military of the Azerbaijani armed forces constitute the following: military personnel - 69,900; tanks - 259; armoured vehicles - 328; artillery (122 mm calibre and above) - 303; military aeroplanes - 49; and helicopter gunships - 15.

"There are fewer troops in Armenia: personnel - 52,000; tanks - 102; armoured vehicles - 218; artillery (122mm and above) 225; military aeroplanes - six; helicopter gunships - nine.

"Meanwhile, major forces have been concentrated in Karabakh: military personnel - 20,000-25,000; tanks - 316; armoured hardware - 324; artillery (122 mm calibre and above) - 322; and rapid fire rocket launching systems (BM military vehicle 21) - 44.

"The Karabakh army is the most efficient in the post-Soviet area. The experience of the former Soviet army was taken as the basis of military training. The NKR Nagornyy Karabakh Republic armed forces have the same service regulations, firing courses and leadership as in the former Soviet Union. Military training and manoeuvres are held regularly and not only existing troops, but the reserve are mobilized for them. There is no exemption from the NKR armed forces and every young man aged 18-20 years should serve in the army for two years. The NKR spends one-quarter of its budget on defence. Military units, stationed along the 250 km-long Karabakh-Azerbaijani border, are ready to repulse any attack of the opposing side at any time.

"...The percentage of contract soldiers in the Karabakh Defence Army is high enough - 20-22 per cent. They have entire subunits where only professionals serve. Material incentives also have their own effect. A lieutenant in a forward position in the NKR armed forces gets 150-170 dollars...

"Despite the fact that the NKR armed forces have no fighters or helicopter gunships, it is obvious that the Armenian army will also fight on the side of the NKR armed forces if the conflict resumes. That is why the Armenian and NKR armed forces should be taken together when the sides' battle worthiness is calculated and analysed. The Armenian forces (the NKR and Armenian armed forces) have an obvious advantage in terms of land troops in a potential conflict, although the same cannot be said about aircraft. However, they have strong air defence forces armed with modern S-125 and S-75 complexes. The Azerbaijani army also has similar complexes, but their air defence crews are not so well-trained. Experts believe that the c.bility of the Azerbaijani land troops is also not high.

"Baku is not c.ble of conducting an effective attack against the forces of the NKR and Armenia in these circumstances. However, Azerbaijan's military and economic potential is substantially higher than the opposing side's. Baku's considerable fuel and lubricant resources, which Armenia does not have, could be a special military factor in the future. The destruction of fuel and lubricant reserves, ammunition and so on will lead to a considerable reduction of the Armenian side's military c.bility... Azerbaijan can conquer the NKR, but it is hardly possible to keep it within Azerbaijan for a long time..."

Azeri officer rejects comparative statistics

A high ranking officer of the Azerbaijani armed forces described "the unreliable facts published in the article" as "a subtle act of psychological warfare". "All the figures given in that article are not true. Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan received approximately an equal number of weapons when the property of the former armed forces of the Soviet Union was divided. Let us take tanks alone. The figures given in the article are not true. There are lists of international inspections, which regularly check the Azerbaijani armed forces to find out the correspondence of the current number with those left from the Soviet Union. Our country has no right to violate this quota. I do not think that the NKR' can possess 316 tanks, because tanks were equally divided between the three countries.

"Moreover, I do not agree with the fact that the total number of weapons of the ground troops of Armenia and Nagornyy Karabakh exceeds the number of ours. Karabakh and Armenia do not have forces to withstand 8m-strong Azerbaijan and the strong potential that is incomparable with that of the Armenians. Our armed forces exceed both in quantity and quality the armed forces of the NKR'. Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan himself actually admitted recently that a considerable part of the NKR army' consisted of men called up for military service from Armenia. The NKR army' mainly consists of the Armenian armed forces, which is no secret.

"The statement that the NKR army' is the most battle-worthy in the post-Soviet area was first made by separatist foreign minister of Nagornyy Karabakh Naira Melkumyan last year. This is a complete bluff. This army' has not taken part in a single operation since 1994. They are busy reassuring themselves and simultaneously trying to show off as strong before their foreign protectors. The strength of an army is demonstrated in either exercises in the CIS or in international events. Their current defence minister', Seyran Oganyan, was not promoted higher than a battalion commander in the former Soviet Union. This position is for colonels, but he is already a lieutenant-general'. This comparison is eloquent enough.

"...We have shortcomings and minuses, but if we look at the whole picture, then we exceed them considerably. Our armed forces take part in many international events even two to three times more than the Armenian armed forces, not to mention the NKR army'. They are not c.ble of training specialists independently, while we have three higher military education institutions - general forces, naval and air forces. Moreover, our cadets study in the USA, China, Pakistan and so on. So what has been written is another big piece of Armenian disinformation.

"I regret only that we are losing to them in the propaganda war to some extent..."

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