Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

[londontsi]

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

316 pages and a half Million views!
Good job!

I am intrigued, any clues?

[Federate]

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

What?

Strange/rare that the alleged "ceasefire violation" happened at the Nakhichevan border. Usually happens at Artsakh frontline or in North-eastern Armenia (around Qazakh).

[Federate]

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

Armenia officially guarantees NKR’s independence
01:15 pm | Today | Politics


The Ministry of Defense today will hold the concluding session of the inter-departmental commission on the Revision of Defense Strategy of Armenia. The package was developed by corresponding structures and experts in the past eight months.

The doctrine is based on the analyis of the regional and international military-political state, strategic foresights, demands for the country's military security system, real economic capacity, the character of potential armed conflicts and the international obligations that Armenia has taken.

"Implementing the opportunities and experience of the international cooperation, Armenia guarantees the security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the implementation of their way of development," as stated in the doctrine. The RSD envisages the restructuring of Armenia's defense forces under certain conditions, particularly in the case of large-scale operations in Nagorno-Karabakh, the worsening of the situation on the Karabakh-Azerbaijani line of contact and individual countries' actions to isolate Armenia from large economic projects in the region.

According to the document, recently Armenia's armed forces don't have much funding since they have directed savings to other spheres. ( huh?)

http://www.a1plus.am/en/politics/2011/06/30/pn-arcax

[Federate]

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

Armenia to open 9 military industry enterprises jointly with Russia
June 30, 2011 - 19:02 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia takes Azerbaijan’s military rhetoric seriously enough, updating its military potential as the situation requires, National Security Council (NSC) Secretary stated.

“Over the last 2 years, serious steps were taken to boost Armenian army’s fighting capacity. We adopted a 2011-2015 defense technology and armament development program, envisaging import of armament and defense technologies as well as the development of military industry in Armenia,” Artur Baghdasaryan stated.

The NSC Secretary further emphasized the importance of Armenia-Russia Protocols with Russian side assuming responsibility for providing the safety of Armenian frontier jointly with Armenian armed forces. “Armenia-Russia military cooperation also envisages creation of 9 joint military industry enterprises,” Baghdasaryan said.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/73599/

[Federate]

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

It looks like Ilham Aliyev's body will single handedly alter the military balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan!!!

[ArmeniaR1]

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

Can't believe such idiots can be president........ What's the point to do such a thing in front of the camera's?

Lol anyway

[londontsi]

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

He is getting ready to lead his troops from the front.

[arakeretzig]

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

Armenia to open 9 military industry enterprises jointly with Russia
June 30, 2011 - 19:02 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia takes Azerbaijan’s military rhetoric seriously enough, updating its military potential as the situation requires, National Security Council (NSC) Secretary stated.

“Over the last 2 years, serious steps were taken to boost Armenian army’s fighting capacity. We adopted a 2011-2015 defense technology and armament development program, envisaging import of armament and defense technologies as well as the development of military industry in Armenia,” Artur Baghdasaryan stated.

The NSC Secretary further emphasized the importance of Armenia-Russia Protocols with Russian side assuming responsibility for providing the safety of Armenian frontier jointly with Armenian armed forces. “Armenia-Russia military cooperation also envisages creation of 9 joint military industry enterprises,” Baghdasaryan said.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/73599/

This is really really good news. It's never too late!

[Mos]

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

Interesting article, one would think Azerbaijan with Turkey as strong NATO member, would be enthusiastically going to NATO membership - but that seems not to be the fact of the matter....

Azerbaijan: Facing a Choice Between NATO and NAM?
June 30, 2011 - 12:46pm, by Shahin Abbasov
Azerbaijan EurasiaNet's Weekly Digest Geopolitics NATO
Azerbaijan’s cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization may not be progressing at a brisk clip, but some local analysts believe that the country’s accession to the Non-Aligned Movement last month put an even bigger question mark over the future of Azerbaijan’s Euro-Atlantic integration.

On May 25, Baku signed on with the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a grouping set up in 1955 to oppose “domination” by the world’s “major powers” and colonialism in its various forms. Apart from Belarus and Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan is the only former Soviet republic to have joined the left-leaning organization, a group more closely associated with the Cold War era.

The surprise decision to join forces with NAM prompted criticism from the Azerbaijani opposition that Baku is selling out on closer cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union. NAM membership requirements state that any “bilateral military agreement with a Great Power” must not be “deliberately concluded in the context of Great Power conflicts.”

In response, the Azerbaijani government has kept relatively close-lipped about reasons for the decision (the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party and pro-government parties remain similarly silent), but government officials have given no public indication that they intend to sever ties with NATO as a result of Azerbaijan’s NAM affiliation.

Speaking at a May 25 NAM conference in Indonesia, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov underlined that membership in the movement allows members “to run for high positions in international organizations and [contributes to] the coordination of activities in these organizations.”

One foreign ministry official, who did not want to be named, told EurasiaNet.org that Azerbaijan wants to use NAM to garner support from its 118 fellow members votes at the United Nations related to the conflict with Armenia over the breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh The membership could also prove useful for Azerbaijan’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, he added. Elections will take place by the end of the year.

Political analyst Sulkhaddin Akper, head of the Azerbaijan-Atlantic Cooperation Association think-tank, discredits this notion, claiming that most of NAM’s 119 member-states – ranging from South Africa and Thailand to Syria and Iran – are too weak to swing a vote in the United Nations.

Fellow analyst Elkhan Shahinoglu, director of the Baku-based Atlas research center, sees another weakness to what he describes as an “illogical” tactic for dealing with Armenia. “Tensions in the South Caucasus are growing and Azerbaijan needs a military alliance with [NATO member] Turkey and deeper cooperation with NATO to ensure its security,” Shahinoglu said. “It does not need neutrality.”

NAM’s criteria about military alliances related to “Great Power” struggles appear flexible, however; Afghanistan and Iraq are both NAM members.

Some Baku analysts, though, still regard this move as an attempt by Azerbaijan to distance itself from NATO and to give itself room for criticizing the alliance. Military analyst Jasur Sumarinli , editor-in-chief of the news agency Mil.az, believes that the withdrawal of Azerbaijan’s 90 soldiers from Afghanistan could soon follow.

“The cooperation with NATO will stall even more,” Sumarinli said, adding that Russia’s influence on Azerbaijan, correspondingly, could increase. “Such a decision should not be taken without public and parliamentary debates.”

Azerbaijan’s National Security Concept document lists Euro-Atlantic integration as a “strategic goal.” Yet, unlike neighboring Georgia, which has cast its foreign-policy lot definitively with the West, Azerbaijan has always attempted to balance its interests between NATO, Russia and, to its south, Iran.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Elkhan Polukhov, however, underlined that joining NAM does not mean that Azerbaijan will change that goal. “We will continue the process of Euro-Atlantic integration, but, at present, Azerbaijan does not have a goal to join NATO or any other military bloc,” Polukhov said. “Integration does not mean membership,” he added.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministry official, speaking separately, denied that the government is considering any withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Afghanistan.

NATO and the US embassy remain silent on the topic. The head of the European Commission’s delegation to Baku, Roland Kobia, told EurasiaNet.org that the Commission is not ready to comment on the matter.

At a June 15 conference on cooperation with NATO, pro-government parliamentarian Rasim Musabekov suggested that Azerbaijan could still cooperate with NATO, yet keep its options open – namely, cooperation with Israel and Russia. “NATO does not show much care and understanding of Azerbaijan’s problems, he said. “Armenia threatens to strike Azerbaijan’s oil infrastructure, but NATO not only refused to supply us with respective weaponry but calls to reduce military spending.”

US Ambassador Matthew Bryza struck a diplomatic note at the gathering, telling participants that “recently I did not hear about Azerbaijan’s wish to be a NATO member. I just heard that Baku wants deeper integration.”

For now, cautioned former presidential foreign policy aide Vafa Guluzade, outside observers should avoid dramatizing Azerbaijan’s decision to join NAM. “It is a tactical maneuver by the government to demonstrate its independence from the West,” Guluzade said. Azerbaijan’s Euro-Atlantic integration is “inevitable” and will continue, he predicted. “[P]articipation in NAM does not bind Azerbaijan to anything.”

Editor's note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance reporter in Baku and a board member of the Open Society Assistance Foundation – Azerbaijan.

[Muhaha]

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

Strange/rare that the alleged "ceasefire violation" happened at the Nakhichevan border. Usually happens at Artsakh frontline or in North-eastern Armenia (around Qazakh).

Did it actually happen though? Seems so far fetched.