Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

[HyeSocialist]

The oligarchs have been abusing Armenia for too long. All they do is abuse Armenia and Armenians. They are the number one enemy to the Armenian people.

They need to sell all the assets that they stole from the country and bring it back into Armenia's budget. Use it to rebuild Armenia.

[Sukhoi22]

Azerbaijan: Russia Stopped Us From "Breaking Armenia's Resistance" in 2016

July 14, 2017 - 9:40am, by Joshua Kucera

Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov visits troops on the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh. Hasanov has provided new details about Russia's involvement in last year's fighting. (photo: MoD Azerbaijan)

Russia intervened to stop Azerbaijan's advances in last year's conflict with Armenia, Azerbaijan's defense minister has said.

While some Russian behind-the-scenes role in stopping the fighting had been known, Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov provided some new details and suggested that Azerbaijan would have made more military advances if not for Moscow's involvement. Hasanov made the comments in an interview with RIA Novosti, his first-ever interview with foreign media.

Through its membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Russia-led security bloc, "Armenia has made other countries hostages to their provocations," Hasanov said. "They know that if no one intervenes in the situation, they wouldn't last for three days. This is what happened in April 2016. If they hadn't stopped us, the resistance would have been broken. In 40 minutes we ran over the lines of defense that the enemy had been building for many years." The fighting last April was the worst since the two sides signed a ceasefire in 1994, killing at least 200 people and further hardening the distrust on both sides.

Armenia "already on the second day" of fighting last April appealed to Russia to intervene, Hasanov said. As a result, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu called him, he recalled. "He said 'this business' had to stop, the leadership of the countries were going to talk about it." A similar call was made by the chief of general staff of the Russian armed forces to his Azerbaijani counterpart, Hasanov said.

Assuming this account is true, the intriguing, missing bit of information is why Azerbaijan acceded to Russia's requests to stop its offensive.

One area of leverage that Russia enjoys over Azerbaijan is the arms trade, as Baku has been heavily arming itself with largely Russian weaponry. In the interview, Hasanov said that the muti-billion-dollar deal that Azerbaijan signed with Russia a few years ago is nearly complete, with 90 percent of the arms shipped to Baku already and the bill entirely paid up.

Azerbaijan is continuing to look at new options for weaponry, he added, suggesting that Baku will continue to buy weapons from other countries while maintaining its Soviet/Russian-legacy base: "We're placing a priority on maneuverability, increased striking power, and more precision strike. I'm not going to go into details," he said. "We're now further studying several models of weapons, inquiring, testing. Buying arms is a multifaceted issue. From the one side, you need to diversify, on the other hand variety creates problems in servicing. It's a very difficult question."

The interview also covered a number of other topics, possibly the most curious of which was a question about whether Azerbaijan's military is capable of peacekeeping in Syria. Rather than addressing the possibility -- presumably nil -- of Azerbaijan actually deploying to Syria under some sort of Russian aegis, Hasanov confirmed that yes, Azerbaijan's military is capable of doing whatever you ask it to do.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan-Russia relations have been going through a bit of a rough patch, with Russia shutting down an Azerbaijani diaspora association in the country and publicly criticizing Baku for discrimination against Russian citizens of Armenian descent. Meanwhile, a Russian citizen is on trial in Baku for going to Karabakh. So things are pretty in flux, making it hard to guess how Russia might act next time there's a flareup over Karabakh.

[Sukhoi22]

Azerbaijan: Russia Stopped Us From "Breaking Armenia's Resistance" in 2016

July 14, 2017 - 9:40am, by Joshua Kucera

Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov visits troops on the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh. Hasanov has provided new details about Russia's involvement in last year's fighting. (photo: MoD Azerbaijan)

Russia intervened to stop Azerbaijan's advances in last year's conflict with Armenia, Azerbaijan's defense minister has said.

While some Russian behind-the-scenes role in stopping the fighting had been known, Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov provided some new details and suggested that Azerbaijan would have made more military advances if not for Moscow's involvement. Hasanov made the comments in an interview with RIA Novosti, his first-ever interview with foreign media.

Through its membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Russia-led security bloc, "Armenia has made other countries hostages to their provocations," Hasanov said. "They know that if no one intervenes in the situation, they wouldn't last for three days. This is what happened in April 2016. If they hadn't stopped us, the resistance would have been broken. In 40 minutes we ran over the lines of defense that the enemy had been building for many years." The fighting last April was the worst since the two sides signed a ceasefire in 1994, killing at least 200 people and further hardening the distrust on both sides.

Armenia "already on the second day" of fighting last April appealed to Russia to intervene, Hasanov said. As a result, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu called him, he recalled. "He said 'this business' had to stop, the leadership of the countries were going to talk about it." A similar call was made by the chief of general staff of the Russian armed forces to his Azerbaijani counterpart, Hasanov said.

Assuming this account is true, the intriguing, missing bit of information is why Azerbaijan acceded to Russia's requests to stop its offensive.

One area of leverage that Russia enjoys over Azerbaijan is the arms trade, as Baku has been heavily arming itself with largely Russian weaponry. In the interview, Hasanov said that the muti-billion-dollar deal that Azerbaijan signed with Russia a few years ago is nearly complete, with 90 percent of the arms shipped to Baku already and the bill entirely paid up.

Azerbaijan is continuing to look at new options for weaponry, he added, suggesting that Baku will continue to buy weapons from other countries while maintaining its Soviet/Russian-legacy base: "We're placing a priority on maneuverability, increased striking power, and more precision strike. I'm not going to go into details," he said. "We're now further studying several models of weapons, inquiring, testing. Buying arms is a multifaceted issue. From the one side, you need to diversify, on the other hand variety creates problems in servicing. It's a very difficult question."

The interview also covered a number of other topics, possibly the most curious of which was a question about whether Azerbaijan's military is capable of peacekeeping in Syria. Rather than addressing the possibility -- presumably nil -- of Azerbaijan actually deploying to Syria under some sort of Russian aegis, Hasanov confirmed that yes, Azerbaijan's military is capable of doing whatever you ask it to do.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan-Russia relations have been going through a bit of a rough patch, with Russia shutting down an Azerbaijani diaspora association in the country and publicly criticizing Baku for discrimination against Russian citizens of Armenian descent. Meanwhile, a Russian citizen is on trial in Baku for going to Karabakh. So things are pretty in flux, making it hard to guess how Russia might act next time there's a flareup over Karabakh.

Hasanov is trying so hard to please the Azerbaijani audience that they built an "invincible" army. Actually it was the other way around, they asked for ceasefire after starting to lose their short-lived gains and Mr. Serzhik accepted it in a childish way when our army was on the counter-attack.
Hasanov is also trying to turn the Azerbaijanis on Russia and use them as a bargaining chip...he's counting on the Russians to sell them more weapons to make the Azerbaijanis love Russia.

[Joseph]

Hasanov is trying so hard to please the Azerbaijani audience that they built an "invincible" army. Actually it was the other way around, they asked for ceasefire after starting to lose their short-lived gains and Mr. Serzhik accepted it in a childish way when our army was on the counter-attack.
Hasanov is also trying to turn the Azerbaijanis on Russia and use them as a bargaining chip...he's counting on the Russians to sell them more weapons to make the Azerbaijanis love Russia.

Indeed, after the first day, the counteroffensive began and the Azeris went crying to Russia to encourage the Armenians to cease operations when it became apparent they were bogged down, stalled, and beginning to waver. The fact is, the Azeris initially took about 8 Armenians positions, and then lost 5-6 of those very quickly- the Azeris may have lost one or two of their own positions (though I cannot confirm this). When the tables turned by day 2, (the Azeris being pushed back and taking heavy casualties) the Azeris engaged the Russians to broker the ceasefire to save face and their small gains.

The Azeris unsuccessfully tried to hide their casualties (in terms of men and equipment), and stopped reporting them after the second day. Fortunately, the expatriate Azeri opposition reported more accurate numbers.
The Azeris had to ground their helicopters and jets almost immediately as they knew they would have taken unacceptable losses had they continued air operations at the front.
The Azeris sent SF units against conscripts who held the line in almost every sector.
The Azeris only retained two positions after all was said and done and in very close proximity to their starting point in areas that have always been troublesome to defend due to topography- areas that changed hands several times during the initial war from 1992-1994.
The Azeris began to rely of Israeli made "HAROP" drones, of which the managed to knock out a tank or two and one lorry full of volunteers.
In close combat situations (just as Armenians did in the first war), the Armenians still have superiority in terms of discipline and bravery- the Azeris still cannot come close to matching Armenian forces in infantry combat. Their only edge is in terms of having a larger arsenal and they'll be forced to rely on technology and large acquisitions.

[londontsi]

No comment.

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[burjuin]

Armenian Air Force

[DieHard69]

No comment.

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Some of them look like they're doing something productive than going out in the front lines, but it shows how bad the oligarchy is in Armenia. Many good men who were conscripted died in this frozen conflict while they are leveraging there young lives out, some maybe living above the law. (1:45 of this video)

[bayhye]

What prevents the oligarchy from taking the path of the American oligarchs (Stanford, Rockefeller, etc.) in the 1850s? The American version likewise accumulated obscene wealth on the backs of the population, but they (partially) gave it back in the forms of universities, parks, and public spaces. Is there a parallel that we can expect? Because we're only 30 years into this new Armenia, and not enough time has passed for this first generation of oligarchs to grow rich, and die. I can be optimistic. Unless there are fundamental differences that mean this wealth is being transferred out rather than being reinvested. With such a tiny population, a handful of the oligarchs deciding to reinvest their ill-gotten wealth into public infrastructure, or you know, concrete bunkers for the boys in Artsakh rather than old tires and soup cans, would have an outsize impact and cement their legacy forever inside and outside Armenia and the diaspora.

[HyeSocialist]

What prevents the oligarchy from taking the path of the American oligarchs (Stanford, Rockefeller, etc.) in the 1850s? The American version likewise accumulated obscene wealth on the backs of the population, but they (partially) gave it back in the forms of universities, parks, and public spaces. Is there a parallel that we can expect? Because we're only 30 years into this new Armenia, and not enough time has passed for this first generation of oligarchs to grow rich, and die. I can be optimistic. Unless there are fundamental differences that mean this wealth is being transferred out rather than being reinvested. With such a tiny population, a handful of the oligarchs deciding to reinvest their ill-gotten wealth into public infrastructure, or you know, concrete bunkers for the boys in Artsakh rather than old tires and soup cans, would have an outsize impact and cement their legacy forever inside and outside Armenia and the diaspora.

The difference between American and Armenian oligarchs is that the Americans had to create the industries that didn't exist before they became monopolists/industrialists(self-made) whereas the Armenians inherited a country and system and ended up using its mechanisms to tax the local population. Notice, none of these oligarchs actually creates anything of significance. Because they can't. They're unable to think like industrialists because they're not industrialists.

Think about people like Rockefller and Carnegie and Stanford and they're the ones who built the country's infrastructure and way of doing business. Then think about guys like Trump who simply get fat off of a system that already exists by hustling everyone. There's a reason why Stanford ended up funding a world leading research institute like Stanford University and that people like Trump ended up funding Trump University.

Whats more is that a lot of money they take from Armenia they pretty much spend in other countries. You really can't spend 100s of millions of dollars in Armenia, but you most definitely can in the United States and the UAE. Which is where these fools take their money.

Why don't they invest in Armenia you say? Well, they don't care about Armenia. If you woke up every day to work out and train your body to be an athlete, you'd always demand of yourself proper diet, rest, and time to train your mind and body. Right? But if you're a parasite, the only thing youre interested in is sucking the blood dry of your host. What you're primarily concerned with is that the host has no ability to shake you off so you can keep sucking.

The sad truth is that a lot of the oligarchs simply don't care. They hate the people. Truly, they hate everyone. That's why they beat them and watch them starve. They also hate Armenia.

Think about how pathetic the leadership is that they can't even keep a national air carrier afloat. 1. There is only 1 major airport in the country. 2. You're landlocked and have a diaspora 3 times your size outside of your borders. 3. you have at least a million people coming in and out of your country a year. How is it that they can't manage to operate an air carrier? Air Baltic seems to be able to. You know why? Because they get a chance to run a monopoly in the country, they load it up with debt, and they drive the business underground by trying to gouge passengers. BECAUSE THEY DO NOT CARE.

It should be clear to every Armenian that NO ONE in Armenia's leadership CARES about Armenia. It's like the US republican party. NO ONE CARES.

[Hakob]

It should be clear to every Armenian that NO ONE in Armenia's leadership CARES about Armenia. It's like the US republican party. NO ONE CARES. [/QUOTE]



My friend, democrats are the same too.
But it is wrong to compare American parties to Armenia's leadership.