Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

[Joseph]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

What is he talking about?

"After all this, the sale of weapons amaralʹna"

It's in response to Russia's Rogozin saying that all arms sale contracts with Azerbaijan will be continued.

[armnuke]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan



April 8, 2016 - 15:35 AMT
Russia to continue selling weapons to Baku under deal: Deputy PM
Russia will continue delivering weapons to Azerbaijan under existing contracts, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday, April 8, according to TASS.

"Everything is done in compliance with the contracts. Both countries (Armenia and Azerbaijan) are our strategic partners," Rogozin said in response to a question about Armenian President's comments on Russia's arms sale to Azerbaijan.

On Thursday, April 7 President Serzh Sargsyn stated that Azerbaijan employed Russian weapons at full capacity in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone, targeting even the civilian population, killing elders and minors.

Hosting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Yerevan, Sargsyan expressed Armenians' concern over Azerbaijan's use of Russian weapons, deeming Russia their closest ally and friend.

http://panarmenian.net/m/eng/news/209860

[armnuke]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

"After all this, the sale of weapons amaralʹna"
It's in response to Russia's Rogozin saying that all arms sale contracts with Azerbaijan will be continued.

Electric Yerevan #2 should be organized.

[AbuSindi]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Wow! Russia has been cornered by the West because of Ukraine, Syria, etc. This elevated the importance (both geopolitically and economically) of having good relations with Azerbaijan. The price of oil is definitely a factor in all this as well. What a conundrum! Russia knows they already have Armenia in their back pocket because they own the majority of our infrastructure, we rely on them for weapons, and they have a huge military base in Gyumri. I think Armenia will be sacrificed in some way in Russia's gambit to improve relations with Azerbaijan. I have a bad feeling we will be betrayed in some form. Hopefully some outside force, or some other external turn of events derails this BS!

[Mher]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Electric Yerevan #2 should be organized.

Electric Yerevan was never about Russia. I was there every single night and I know many of the organizers. It was about the corrupt davajan citizens of Armenia within the Electric Network of Armenia leadership who were screwing over the country for making themselves wealthy. First day one group showed up with EU flags, and people beat them up and threw them out. Russia might have been the owner, but it was Armenians running it and stealing from it. However, Russia being the paranoid brutish country that it is, first insulted the movement and tried to get it shut down, and once people's attention turned to it, it panicked and gave Armenia a bunch of concessions nobody was asking for.


Anyway, I think we need to play our hand carefully and not get too ahead of ourselves. Nobody ever suggested Russia is a friendly country or an ally. But one of the reasons we managed to survive and win, was because we didn't piss them off last few years and we continued to receive cheap weapons. Azerbaijan is on the path to self destruction. We need to not change course dramatically until that happens, then we can weigh our options.

[Haykakan]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Electric Yerevan was never about Russia. I was there every single night and I know many of the organizers. It was about the corrupt davajan citizens of Armenia within the Electric Network of Armenia leadership who were screwing over the country for making themselves wealthy. First day one group showed up with EU flags, and people beat them up and threw them out. Russia might have been the owner, but it was Armenians running it and stealing from it. However, Russia being the paranoid brutish country that it is, first insulted the movement and tried to get it shut down, and once people's attention turned to it, it panicked and gave Armenia a bunch of concessions nobody was asking for.


Anyway, I think we need to play our hand carefully and not get too ahead of ourselves. Nobody ever suggested Russia is a friendly country or an ally. But one of the reasons we managed to survive and win, was because we didn't piss them off last few years and we continued to receive cheap weapons. Azerbaijan is on the path to self destruction. We need to not change course dramatically until that happens, then we can weigh our options.

It is a pleasure watching you mature into a smart hayrenaser young man!

[Mher]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Russia Asked To Speed Up Arms Deal With Armenia


Sargis Harutyunyan եւ Ruzanna Stepanian
Հրապարակված է՝ 07.04.2016

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian asked his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday to accelerate the planned delivery of $200 million worth of Russian weapons to Armenia during their talks held in Yerevan following a sharp escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The move came amid mounting anger in Armenia over Azerbaijan’s use of Russian-manufactured offensive weapons during recent days’ heavy fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, which left at least 36 Armenian soldiers dead. Lawmakers representing President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) launched unprecedented scathing attacks on Moscow on Thursday.

Yerevan is due to purchase, at substantially discounted prices, Russian multiple-launch rocket systems, heavy flamethrowers, advanced anti-tank missiles and other weapons with a $200 million loan allocated by the Russian government last summer.

Abrahamian thanked Moscow for the loan agreement when he met Medvedev. “However, there is a certain slowdown in the process of the implementation of the agreement, and I am therefore asking you to issue instructions [Russia’s state arm exporter] Rosoboronexport on concluding the contract,” Medvedev’s press office quoted him as saying.


In a thinly veiled rebuke to Moscow, Abrahamian also noted that Azerbaijan used Russian-made T-90 tanks, TOS-1A flamethrowers and devastating Smerch rocket systems during the fighting.

Baku bought these and other weapons as part of defense contracts with Moscow worth at least $4 billion. They were reportedly signed in 2009-2011, at a time when Medvedev served as Russia’s president.

Many in Armenia have deplored the Russian arms supplies to Baku, saying that they ran counter to the Russian-Armenian military alliance. The criticism sharply intensified following the Azerbaijani offensive launched along the Karabakh “line of contact” on Saturday.

“We have suffered many casualties … and Russia is also to blame for that,” said Vazgen Karakhanian, a parliament deputy from the ruling HHK. “We can’t keep this truth under wraps.”

Another pro-government Armenian parliamentarian, Samvel Nikoyan, stressed that unlike Russia, the two other mediating powers -- the United States and France -- have not sold weapons to Azerbaijan. “They [the Russians] too understand now that what they did was inadmissible,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).

“They too see that Armenian soldiers and civilians were killed by weapons supplied by them,” said Nikoyan. “And it would be kind of insincere to say after all this that we are friends, brothers, allies and so on.”

The Karabakh escalation was on the agenda of Abrahamian’s talks with Medvedev. The Russian premier expressed hope after the talks that the conflicting parties will stick to the ceasefire brokered by Moscow on Tuesday and restart peace talks.

Medvedev, who hosted nearly a dozen Armenian-Azerbaijani summits during his 2008-2012 presidency, was due to meet with President Sarkisian later in the evening.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/27660947.html

[Mher]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Karabakh Army ‘Has No Need Of More Volunteers For Now'

mil Danielyan եւ Hovannes Movsisian
Հրապարակված է՝ 07.04.2016

Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian on Thursday urged volunteers from Armenia to stop trying to join Nagorno-Karabakh’s army for now, saying that it has already been sufficiently reinforced in recent days.

Thousands of such volunteers, many of them veterans of the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan, flocked to Karabakh after the Azerbaijani army launched an offensive along the “line of contact” around the disputed territory on Saturday.

Some of them were handed weapons and uniforms in Armenia before heading to Stepanakert and being deployed at various sections of the Karabakh frontline. They are mostly members of the influential Yerkrapah Union comprising war veterans and younger Armenians with military experience.

Karabakh’s Armenian-backed Defense Army has been in no rush to deploy many other volunteers arriving from Armenia. It called up many Karabakh Armenian reservists immediately after the escalation.

Ohanian, himself a prominent war veteran, heaped praise on the volunteers with a written statement that was apparently aimed at stopping their influx for the time being.

“Since the Defense Army command appealed to me and, along with words of gratitude, said that all of its detachments have already been reinforced with personnel, the other volunteers … should keep up preparations and leave for Artsakh (Karabakh) if need be,” he said.


“We do need audacious comrades-in-arms,” added Ohanian. “Let that audacity and vigilance always stay with you. By staying here in Armenia, you should always remain prepared because our struggle will be continuous.”

“In necessary, we will inform you and you will definitely go to Artsakh to ensure the security of our compatriots there,” stressed the Karabakh-born minister.

The Defense Army has also been joined by scores of Karabakh Armenian volunteers. “Our soldiers are in high spirits but we want to raise them further,” one of them told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) at an army position in southeastern Karabakh on Thursday.

“Peace will return to our land,” said the middle-aged man holding a Kalashnikov rifle. “We have nowhere to go. We were born here and are ready to die here.”

Young conscripts serving there also sounded bullish about taking on Azerbaijani forces. “We are 170 centimeters tall but a bullet is only 5.45 millimeters [in diameter,]” said one of them. “Why should we be scared of bullets?”

“People [volunteers] don’t have to come here,” added the soldiers. “We are standing firm. All the guys here are in high spirits.”

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/27660547.html

[Haykakan]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Also do not forget we can sell each one of them to any state at the price of a Russian pantsir. I know Iran will be the first client.

That sounds like a great idea!

[Joseph]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

While we can't rightly say this current offensive is over, this is what we have learned so far (let's add to the list, is very macro and basic but is a basis for understanding):

1. The Azeris planned a large offensive in two sectors of the front- towards N.E Mardakert and S.W Hardut. The plan was for a quick engagement to roll up some territory and create confusion in the Armenian lines and force Armenia to the peace table.
2. The Offensive involved heavy artillery, SF, Air Power in order to take out Armenian frontline defensive positions and create a bridgehead to move up the core of the Azeri army and equipment for continued incursion operations as needed.
3. Due to the element of surprise and somewhat lax vigilance in certain frontline positions, the Azeris initially had some success at various points in the frontline.
4. Unexpected to the Azeris and having a detrimental effect to their operations, NKR forces quickly took out 2 attack helicopters forcing the Azeri to remove other AF assets from engagement as more loss would have been very costly in terms of depletion and morale, and NRK forces effectively used an artillery that changed the dynamics of the offensive which in turn stopped the offensive cold and enabled Armenian positions to be reinforced and counteroffensive operations to ensue which in turn took back some of the positions.
5. For an 12-18 hour period the Azeris occupied Talish and murdered at least 3 Armenians who remained in the town. NKR forces took back the town and the Azeri forces lost many troops in the counteroffensive.
6. Some of the positions the the Azeris "occupied" were actual in no-mans land or already under their possession since the ceasefire in 1994. This was done to create domestic patriotic fervor and morale. The Azeris were successful in at least one location know by them as "Lala Tepe", a group of hills on the Iranian border about 100 meters in front of their lines near Horadiz. It is of marginal strategic value.
7.NKR forces had a good showing against Azeri tanks which forced the Azeris to stop using their tank assets for fear of depletion.
8. The Azeris used Israeli made drones and attack drones with only questionable success. Indeed, the were able to take out several NKR tanks and a military transport truck but some of their intended use, to knock out radar, completely failed.
9. NKR forces will need to do a better job with protecting, concealing, and utilizing tanks in the future. These asset were not lost in tank to tank combat in attack but mostly to attack drone and Azeri artillery.
10. The Azeris used SMERCH and the MRLS systems to little effect but did target civilian areas.
11. The Azeris tried to regain Talish and simultaneously tried to conquer Mataghis. They failed and that resulted in many Azeri casualties.
12. Due to the element of surprise and lack of total preparation, the NKR forces lost more troops than they should have but as the days progress, and though we can only confirm 61+ Azeris deaths, we can ascertain that Azeri losses were much higher than they'll admit and much higher than the enemy expected.
13. Due to its losses and failure to meet goals set by the offensive operations, the Azeris called for a ceasefire.
14. The offensive may begin again very soon. The Azeris are rearming and bringing more troops and equipment to the front.
15. Azeris are not abiding by the ceasefire. Large operations have ceased but they are still firing mortars and sniping at Armenian positions.
16. NKR forces are now ready and in high spirits. Many additional volunteers from Armenia and diaspora are waiting to join the front when and if needed. So far the NKR forces have the situation under control.
17. NKR forces have been very patient, perhaps to patient towards Azeri ceasefire violations.
18. Armenia and NKR does not have any true allies and must rely on itself.
19. Iran might be ver interested in what intelligence NKR can provide about the downed UAVs.
20. Its only a matter of time before the Azeris launch another offensive as they only utilized a portion of their resources towards this current offensive and will plan for more. Armenia did not need to utilizes and resources for this current offensive- they remain in waiting and will enter when needed and when/if they do, the Azeris will more than likely face a decisive counterattack.
21 The Azeris will try to keep Armenia occupied in Tavush and perhaps on the border of Nakhichevan.