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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
Armenian Air Force
Armenian Air Force
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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
Nice I guess. *points out I am not that into military things*
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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
As much as I enjoyed this video, the SU-25s are dinosaurs and will be potentially obsolete in the next war with Azerbaijan.Originally posted by burjuin View PostLast edited by Federate; 10-05-2009, 04:50 PM.Azerbaboon: 9.000 Google hits and counting!Comment
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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
Landmines still a deadly threat in Armenia
Monday, October 5, 2009
Vercihan ZİFLİOĞLU
YEREVAN - Hürriyet Daily News
The landmines placed near border villages during the Nagorno-Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia still pose a grave threat to residents’ daily lives. Hundreds of people have been killed or wounded by mines on both sides of border and the lives of children are most at risk, according to a leading peace activist in the region
Rather than seek sanctuary from the deadly clashes around her, Ruzanna Hovannesian insisted on waiting in the bread line a few hundred meters away from home, ration card in hand. As usual, dozens of people waited in a lengthy queue for a single loaf.
“We heard a deafening blast and time came to a standstill,” Hovannesian said. When she managed to stand up amid the wreckage and dust clouds, the sight she saw was horrifying: death was everywhere. Most people in the queue were now lying lifeless. “I was terrified when I thought of my home, my family,” Hovannesian said. It was too late: the target of the blast was her own house.
Hovannesian is still living in Syunik – a region of Armenia bordering Azerbaijan – and is not interested in leaving her village despite the tragedy she experienced. “Peace shall come to this region through the leadership of women,” said Hovannesian, who is now actively working for the Peace Center – an institution that struggles to clear the mines along the Azerbaijani-Armenian border. These mines were laid during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, fought between Azerbaijan and the region’s ethnic Armenian population. Hovannesian is also the founder of the University Graduate Women’s Organization, which is the sole non-governmental organization in Syunik.
Tough conditions
Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan has cleared the mines even though it has been 16 years since the war ended, Hovannesian told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review for the second Postcard from Armenia. “Many children and adults have lost their lives on both sides of the border because of those mines and there are hundreds who have stepped on a mine and survived,” she said. According to Hovannesian’s recent research on mine casualties, the survivors struggle to live under the extremely hard conditions in Armenia. “The people I have interviewed are not aware of their legal rights. The government is required to give prosthetics to them. We inform them of these rights,” she said.
The mines continue to pose a grave threat, especially to the children, Hovannesian said. “Mines are too close to the villages of Yegvart, Akarak and Hang. The adults are largely aware of the risk but the children are not.”
Many villagers earn their living herding cattle and their worst nightmare is that a whole herd could be slaughtered by a single minefield, Hovannesian said. She called on both Azerbaijan and Armenia to clear the mines as soon as possible. “I hope these lands may never experience war again. That’s my biggest dream. After clearing the hills of mines, this land may become a delta of peace.”
Hovannesian also spoke of her life before the war, suggesting the region’s desire to revive enduring inter-communal relations. “Our villages were close to each other, and these differences did not have meaning before the war,” Hovannesian said. She said hostility and fighting between the two nations do not benefit anyone and voiced a call for the long-awaited peace. “I want to have dialog and friendship between the two nations,” she said. “Just as it was before the war.”
Hovannesian mood darkens whenever she hears about war. “Each time, it takes me back to the exact day when that bomb destroyed my home. This word makes me experience that unbearable pain once more.”
In our third Postcard from Armenia, another peace activist steps forward, this time with 40 wolves in tow, and a debate over a disputed song contest grabs attention across the country.
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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
Natives want peace, many people in France&USA (called Diaspora) want another war...Originally posted by Alexandros View PostComment
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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
Where did you learn that?Is this what they teach you in Turkey?Originally posted by Army View PostComment
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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
Seriously they teach nothing bad or good to me about Armenia here. No.. just from the forum, the messages about the 'future war'.Originally posted by Alexandros View PostComment
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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
Those of us in the diaspora don't want war, however we know that the U.S. provides Turkey with military equipment and both Armenia and Azerbaijan with military funding. This isn't about what we want, it's about understanding the money trail and the powers that force countries to go to war.Originally posted by Army View Post"Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it." ~Malcolm XComment
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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
if so that made it clearOriginally posted by KanadaHye View PostComment
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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
Ex-Official Concerned Over Actual Military Budget Cut
06.10.2009
Sargis Harutyunyan
A former deputy defense minister expects the planned actual curtailment of military spending envisaged by Armenia’s 2010 state budget to have a negative effect on the country’s defense capability.
His concerns, however, are not shared by the Defense Ministry’s chief financier, who says that the 30 percent reduction in spending estimated in U.S. dollars reflects the corresponding depreciation of the national currency that has taken place on the foreign exchange market since the approval of the current year’s budget in late 2008.
The actual reduction, meanwhile, follows the general pattern of the government’s request for the 2010 budgetary expenditures that it plans to slash by nine percent citing the ongoing economic recession and the resulting serious shortfall in tax revenues.
In an interview with RFE/RL on Tuesday, Vahan Shirkhanian, who served as Armenia’s deputy prime minister and deputy defense minister in the late 1990s, said this development is certain to have an impact on the overall fighting capacity of the Armenian army which he described as a complex and dynamic structure that has enjoyed a sufficient level of funding in recent years.
“The [military] budget would grow by $100-120 million every year and that could not but have its [positive] effect in the matter of ensuring [the country’s] military security,” he said. “But today we witness a sharp increase of Azerbaijan’s military budget and it is reflected not only in the increase in funding, but also in its purchasing modern high-precision weapons… I consider it unacceptable that Armenia cut its military spending.”
Speaking to RFE/RL on the phone, the Defense Ministry chief financier Colonel Vagharshak Avetisian said that the Ministry had submitted a request for about 130 billion drams in next year’s budget, which is nearly the same amount as the 2008 request for the current year. However, he explained, considering the devaluation of the national currency by nearly 30 percent, it turns out that the defense budget in 2010 will be nearly 30 percent less.
At the end of 2008, when this year’s military budget was approved, it was equivalent to $426 million. At the current dollar-dram exchange rate, the same amount in drams will be equivalent to $335 million.
But according to Avetisian, in any case the depreciation of the national currency will not affect the Defense Ministry expenditure in the main directions.
“Even if some changes are made in terms of reduction, then our main spending spheres and directions will never be affected by that. And, naturally, if there is a need for reduction, we can make cuts in capital construction, while the other expenditure items will not be affected,” said Avetisian.
Avetisian also downplayed the impact of the exchange rate on military purchases abroad that are transacted in hard currency.
“Our surveys show that the current level of prices [for weaponry] abroad is lower than it was during the past years,” he said.
Avetisian also brushed aside the argument made by the former defense ministry official that certain budget reductions might cause some discontent mainly among senior command staff who will have to complete harder tasks with less funding.
“We have made a budget request based on this year’s volumes. No changes will be made in any spending direction. Moreover, there will be some increase in money allowances,” said Avetisian. “I can say that our armed forces will be provided with everything that is necessary to achieve our objectives at a given period of time.”
Azerbaboon: 9.000 Google hits and counting!Comment
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