Zaur Nasirli: Hazing rules Azerbaijani army; morale and training con

Zaur Nasirli: Hazing rules Azerbaijani army; morale and training
condition of soldiers is on the rocks

13:50 07/09/2013 » SOCIETY

“At first, I’d like to dispel the myth that having a military budget
of $3.7 billion, we will surely crush Armenia, the military budget of
which is only $ 412 million,” writes journalist Zaur Nasirli in the
article titled “Myths and Realities of the Azerbaijani Army,”
published in Azerbaijani portal “Factheber.”

The author notes that the military expenditures of Azerbaijan are 7
times larger than the military budget of Armenia, “but, unfortunately,
it means nothing.” As an example, the author brings Turkey the
military budget of which is about 11.2 billion dollars, and Saudi
Arabia, the military expenditures of which is $ 60 billion.
“Nevertheless, the armies of these countries are not comparable.
Turkey several times excels Saudi army in all respects – in
professionalism, weapons, military trainings, etc.” Nasirli says.

The article also says that the U.S. military budget is 633 billion
dollars, which is more than the entire state budget of Russia and is 7
times greater than its military budget. However, the Russian army is
not inferior to the U.S. Army. At the same time Russia is one of the
world’s leading weapon exporters.

“Thus how reasonable it is to speak with such certainty about the
inevitable victory over Armenia? The pledge of strong army is not
money, but the professionalism, fighting efficiency, high quality
trainings of the soldiers and their fighting spirit. One would not say
the same about our army, where still hazing reigns, and the morale of
soldiers and their level of military training is almost on the rocks.
Everyone tries to avoid passing military service by all means because
of the horrific conditions existing in the army,” says the article.

The author notes that the Azerbaijani soldiers swear after giving
their service that the concept of “fight for their country,” is not
worth a damn for them.

“With such a spirit of soldiers, it is very difficult to talk about
any specific victories. Unfortunately, the government does not give
much importance to the army. It practically does not fight tyranny and
commanding voluntarism. The government is just trying to present
everything in pink colors, showing off its 3-billion-dollar budget,
most of which is spent for other purposes. To solve such a big problem
the authorities need to fully replace the commanding staff of the
army, because solving the problems with the current army commanders is
the same as gathering alcoholics and fighting the alcoholism by their
help,” Nasirli sums up.

Source: Panorama.am