Against the background of the post-election events in Armenia, on June 14, through the demarcated and demarcated part of the land border, Hikmet Hajiyev, the assistant to the president of Azerbaijan, arrived in Armenia and discussed issues related to the peace agenda between Armenia and Azerbaijan at a meeting with the Secretary of the RA Security Council Armen Grigoryan in Dilijan.

At the end of the meeting, they agreed to continue working contacts, noting that the next meeting will take place in Azerbaijan. And the next day, June 15, in occupied Shushi, Baku noted The 5th anniversary of the signing of the Shushi Declaration.

How much Armen Grigoryan remembers about his Artsakh roots (he is from occupied Martuni), but Hikmet Hajiyev does not forget that he was born in Ganja (Gandzak), and he especially remembers this in October, when he writes about the targeting of Ganja by the RA armed forces during the 44-day war.

Moreover, in October 2024, Hajiyev from the RA authorities had demanded investigate Ganja cases and bring the culprits to justice.

“2020 on October 17, the second deadliest ballistic missile was launched in the direction of Ganja. “The killing of the civilian population by the use of a ballistic missile by Armenia was not an accidental act, but a deliberate policy of terrorism (quotation marks: – M.P.).” And Armenia, as a member of the International Criminal Court, should investigate the Ganja (Gandzak) rocket attacks.” 2024 on October 17 on his X social network page to write was Aliyev’s assistant.

Are the representatives of the RA government honoring Hikmet Hajiyev sure that in Ganja (Gandzak) born Hikmet Hajiyev will not ask Armenia again to investigate the 44-day war “The Ganja Cases”as did 2024 in October, if we don’t take into account that Hajiyev’s demands were in some way placed on the agenda of the Baku “trial” and that is also why the former president of Artsakh, Araik Harutyunyan, was convicted, although in the testimony attributed to him in the Baku court, the arrow was corrected In the direction of Onik Gasparyan, head of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia and during the 44-day holiday.

Of course, Hajiyev decided for himself the only culprit a long time ago. Almost immediately after the 44 day war he had announced. “Davit Tonoyan must answer for his crimes as a war criminal, even if he was removed from his post.”:

In particular, according to an Azerbaijani official, in 2020 for the shelling of the city of Terter on October 3-4 and not only, but alsoof Ganja cases.” 

Hajiyev is incorrect to express To the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia before the war, in July 2018.

And? 2019 in June and vzglyad.az was an article publish՝ “Tonoyan must answer for the murder of Elshan Khalilov.” We are talking about an Azerbaijani serviceman whose neutralization had preceded the murder of an Armenian soldier, Sipan Melkonyan. And the Armenian side took punitive actions, moreover, Davit Tonoyan rewarded the participants of the operation.

Aliyev’s assistant’s revenge against Davit Tonoyan and, why not, the RA armed forces, has its own history, which we will address in this article.

But before that, let’s remind that in September 2024, the assistant of the President of Azerbaijan, Hikmet Hajiyev had suggested apply restrictions to the armed forces of Armenia in the same way as “After the war between Iraq and Kuwait, certain restrictions were imposed on the development of the Iraqi armed forces.”

Let’s look at the reasons for Hajiev’s attitude towards the Minister of Defense and the RA Armed Forces. Aliyev’s assistant Hajiyev was the representative of Azerbaijan in NATO for several years from 2003. at the same time 2004-2007 in NATO, RA Armed Forces the representative was Davit Tonoyan, who in 1998-2004 served in various positions attached to the Headquarters of the Allied Command of NATO Operations.

And in the event that in 2003 The leadership of Azerbaijan, at the level of the president, made loud statements about getting closer to NATO and even thinking about membership, there were even rumors about deploying forces or objects belonging to NATO in Azerbaijan, but all these plans fail.

Furthermore, Hajiyev’s time in NATO is considered A period of crisis and failure in Azerbaijan-NATO relations, if not a step back.

2004 scheduled in Baku is cancelled Cooperative Best Effort-2004 NATO exercises. And this is only because Azerbaijan refuses to ensure the participation of Armenian officers in that military event. Representative of the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels to Mediamax given by phone in the interview said that the supreme commander of NATO’s armed forces in Europe, American General James Jones, decided to cancel the military exercises. “because Azerbaijan’s refusal to grant permission to Armenian officers violates “Partnership for Peace” the fundamental principle of military exercises within the framework of the program, according to which they should be open to all partner countries.”

And this is when, as on one occasion we wrote: During the presidency of Robert Kocharyan in 2003 NATO exercises in Armenia for the first time are held. We are talking about the exercise “Best Joint Effort-2003” within the framework of the “Partnership for Peace” program, in which 400 military personnel from 8 NATO members and 11 countries included in the “Partnership for Peace” program participated.

Moreover, “Mediamax” according to reports, at that time RA Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan spoke about the intention to invite Russia.

In an interview published in the Russian “Nezavisimaya Gazeta”, he said that Russia should not be concerned about military exercises within the framework of NATO’s “Partnership for Peace” program in Armenia.

«The Russian military can directly participate in these military exercises, at least we will definitely send an appropriate invitation to the Russian military leadership.” Serzh Sargsyan said.

Moreover, as early as 2002 Serzh Sargsyan in July had said որ՝ “If the Turkish military takes part in military exercises, there will be nothing terrible about it.”

In other words, during the time of the former authorities, cooperation with NATO was quite active, and it was not done at the expense of relations with either Russia or the CSTO, or it was done so that the parties accepted the fact of this balanced policy. In other words, Armenia was considered a reliable partner for the parties, and there was no doubt about what was said. And Davit Tonoyan, the RA representative in NATO, played a role in the disruption of Hajiev’s various NATO programs, which Hajiev can’t forget to this day.

2004 on February 19, Armenian Armed Forces officer Gurgen Margaryan, participating in the NATO training program in Budapest, was axed while sleeping by Azerbaijani criminal Ramil Safarov. And this again coincides with the period of Hikmet Hajiyev as the representative of Azerbaijan in NATO. In other words, Baku is dealing another blow to NATO’s reputation.

The series of failed NATO ambitions of Baku and Hikmet Hajiyev in the above period can be continued. And at the same time, Armenia was recording success.

– 2002 Armenia: has become Associate member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, also joined the NATO Planning and Review Process (PARP).

– We have already mentioned that 2003 in the summer Armenia hosted the NATO exercise “Joint Best Effort 2003”.

– 2004 Armenia’s 35-member peacekeeping platoon has begun its participation in the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) peacekeeping operation. Besides this, Armenia has established a permanent diplomatic mission at the NATO headquarters.

– 2005. In June, RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian presented Armenia’s first Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) to the North Atlantic Council, which was approved by the NATO North Atlantic Council and Armenia on December 18.

– 2006 In July, the “Rescuer 2006” NATO/GCC exercise was held in Armenia. Moreover, NATO has appointed the first NATO liaison officer in Armenia, and later has started Implementation of the Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan. The series of successes recorded in Armenia-NATO relations can be continued, perhaps we will limit ourselves to this.

Ի դեպ, այլ առիթով we have touched on Armenia-US defense relations, and Armenia’s participation in various international military exercises.

In this context, perhaps, it is necessary to recall the 2010 «Mediamax” the interview given by Celesta Wallander, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense of the United States, where she, in particular, emphasized:

During Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s last visit to Armenia, she informed President Serzh Sargsyan about the intention to expand the cooperation agenda between Armenia and the USA. My visit made it possible to focus on defense cooperation itself. I discussed with President Sargsyan and Minister of Defense Ohanyan the issue of expanding our support in the training and preparation of Armenian servicemen. There are other areas where there is potential for expanding cooperation. in particular, we are talking about the expansion of RA’s opportunities to participate in international missions.

Armenia already participates in missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan, and the opportunity to contribute to international missions is always there.

Defense cooperation largely depends on organizational capabilities. planning, organizing processes, budgeting and working with staff.

During the meetings we discussed SDR (Strategic Defense Review). ԱՄՆ-ը և մյուս երկրներն օժանդակում են այդ գործընթացին, և այն շատ լավ է առաջ ընթանում:

The strategic defense review is the basis for conducting defense reforms, during which an assessment of the current state of the system is made, priorities are outlined, after which the action plan can be drawn up and implemented.

That process is progressing well, laying the groundwork for other components of defense reform. We cooperate with Armenia in the development of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) of the Armed Forces. Sergeant staff is the key to the effectiveness of the American and European armed forces.

It would be useful for other countries to have such a model of the Armed Forces, because it would facilitate their interaction with NATO and participation in the activities and programs of the Alliance. Մենք ուսումնասիրում ենք նաև ՀՀ պաշտպանության նախարարության ներքին բարեփոխումների մյուս ուղղություններին սատարելու հնարավորությունը, որոնք վերաբերում են կադրային հարցերին:

When countries have a program of cooperation with NATO, the United States tries to support it by looking for synergies in bilateral relations.

By the way, as we have seen, the Defense Military Review process was emphasized by the officials of the US Department of Defense, and it was also emphasized by the former authorities of Armenia.

2023 on November 8, the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Davit Tonoyan through the legal team interview had given 168.am, where the Defense Review process was highlighted again.

168.amis extensive study presented in different rounds about the PR process, noting that Pashinyan’s government did not implement such a process. We presented we are also the history of introduction of the sergeant system in the Armed Forces.

That is, what the current authorities talk about or don’t talk about was discussed by the former authorities of RA a long time ago and concrete results were recorded by those occupying responsible positions of the RA Ministry of Defense at that time. Of course, it is welcome to conduct the “Eagle Partner” exercise under the current authorities, in which this year, in addition to the servicemen of the RA Armed Forces and the US troops, the servicemen of France and Greece will also participate, but we cannot help but notice that the RA Armed Forces need to participate in exercises of a different quality, content and caliber.

Now let’s return to Hikmet Hajiyev and add that he had “claims” regarding the leadership of NATO even during the reign of the current authorities.

In 2023, he Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen had accused In acting in favor of Armenia.

The problem is how well today’s authorities are able to create strong defense relations with NATO, host or participate in military exercises, thwart Baku’s similar plans or leave behind progress in the context of relations with NATO and not only, and that too in the conditions of Armenia’s “frozen” membership in the CSTO. The answer is perhaps simple.

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