news.az, Azerbaijan
July 31 2010
Azerbaijan has right to buy everything for its security
Sat 31 July 2010 | 07:44 GMT Text size:
Uzeir Jafarov News.Az interviews military expert Uzeir Jafarov.
Azerbaijan has set a record for post-Soviet countries on the purchase
of foreign arms: Russia will supply Baku with anti-missile S-300 PMU-2
Favorit. What does Azerbaijan need this military technique for?
I would not say that Azerbaijan has set a record on arms purchase. Our
neighbors that are at war with us, have purchased arms and technique
ten times as frequent as we have in the past years both legally and
illegally. Thus, this is a different matter and I do not want to stop
on it. As for Azerbaijan, if I am not mistaken, in the past years our
country purchased weapon and technique from such countries as Belarus,
Ukraine, Romania and others. I do not remember any information about
our purchase of something grandeur, from the category of heavy armed
technique from Russia. I remember that we purchased sanitary wheel
technique, like UAZ, as well as secondary things. The information
about Azerbaijan’s purchase of anti-missile system from Russia is a
good news personally for me though I do not support buying technique
made in 1979 for our armed forces. You know this is when C-300 was
produced. The matter is that our neighbors have bought this system
long before and they are trying to outline their superiority. But I
think now they will think a little bit. We understand that our
neighbors will now find it difficult to boast, but this is a fact.
Russian military experts believe that the supplies will hardly change
the balance in the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations since neither
Armenia nor Azerbaijan have modern offensive aircrafts, cruise and
ballistic missiles against which C-300 is intended. Baku seems to be
willing to secure itself from any attacks in case of worsening of
situation around Iran. Do you think Baku fears rocket attacks by Iran?
We are a sovereign state and we have a right to purchase everything
necessary for country’s security. The purchased technique is purely
for protection of country’s interests. It is not targeting anyone.
Which advantage will the purchase of S-300 anti-missile system give to
Baku? Why do you think the information about the deal stroke last year
has been made public just now? Is there a hidden sense now, because it
turns out that the information about it is made public when in fact
the negotiation process on Nagorno Karabakh conflict has stalled¦
First of all, this information appeared just now for neither Armenia
nor Azerbaijan to think about new clashes in Karabakh. The parties
have recently been making many statements regarding hostilities and
naturally such bellicose rhetoric in the region makes superpowers, who
are responsible to the situation, do some correctives. The
ineffectiveness of the negotiation process, passiveness of superpowers
regarding the bloodshed, death of civilians and servicemen promote the
appearance of this information now. That is, there is a specific game
between the parties. Those who benefit from this picture are likely to
provide a dose of information to public.
Russia has sold anti-missile systems to Azerbaijan. Moscow’s financial
interest in this case is clear. Meanwhile, as is known Russia granted
arms to Armenia in the amount of $800m a few years ago. Do you think
Russia is thereby trying to restore the balance of powers between
Armenia and Azerbaijan?
I do not think that in exchange to the arms Russia supplied to Armenia
freely in the past and just recently, it is now creating a balance
between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Russia is reported to have sold the
anti-missile complex for a decent amount to our country. Nevertheless,
I see official structures silent and I won’t be surprised if this
information is dismissed soon. There have been many cases of this
kind. Though, I, personally, do not believe this information.
B.A.
News.Az
From: A. Papazian