Azeri daily slams authorities for lagging behind Armenia in army building
Azadliq, Baku
27 Aug 04
Armenia is building up its military might and has increased defence
spending from the state budget by 10 per cent as against 2003. Armenia
occupies the first rank in terms of military spending among the CIS
[Commonwealth of Independent States] countries.
Armenia will soon purchase 10 SU-25 fighters from Slovakia. Before
this procurement of military hardware, it purchased two IL-76 military
transport planes from Russia and contracts were signed with Belarus to
purchase weapons, armoured hardware, ammunition and rifles with
telescopic sight.
Greek’s Athens military and military-medical academies will increase
the quota of Armenian officers, and Washington will give another 7m
dollars in aid to Armenia, in addition to 5m dollars, to upgrade the
army’s communication system. All these prove the [Armenian President
Robert] Kocharyan government’s performance in the military field.
We wonder what is [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev’s government
doing? It is planning to join a single economic zone with Russia and
Belarus which actually provide Armenia with military aid. He gave a
red carpet treatment to the Greek president, whose country is training
more and more Armenian officers, and saw him off without getting a
guarantee of any profit.
He has given up Washington to embrace Europe where is also Slovakia,
and at best, he could purchase passenger planes from them. And this is
occurring when our passenger planes have been impounded by [the
Turkish Saka Korkmaz] company due to the notorious debt.
[Passage omitted: quotes from various agencies and military magazines]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress