If you want peace, prepare for war. Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces Day will be celebrated in Baku

After the 44-day war of 2020, no special importance is given to the formation of the RA armed forces or the day of the Armenian army, so that there is no special “heroic” atmosphere in the country.

It’s not about empty toasts, nor about those events, from which those who fought for the defense of the army and the country’s borders were sometimes or often left out, but about the heroism of the Armenian army, individual officers, real life stories and not only that.

And for the first time after the change of power in 2018, the military parade organized on the Republic Square on May 28 of this year was mainly given a pre-election-city-propaganda background.

Any such event contains a political statement, but, as a Russian would say, it was “перебор”.

In any case, after the military parade, we tried to “tear” or “take out” the army from the pre-election environment and demonstrate an exclusively narrow professional approach, but the RA Ministry of Defense, its leadership, who are often “upset” by the fact that the opposition political forces approached the military parade exclusively from a political point of view, that they did not notice any positive things done, were not interested in us considering the military parade from a military professional point of view, because there were several clarifying questions.

The Armenian-American exercises “Eagle Partner” also ended a few days ago, we had a similar experience in this case as well, again we wanted to single out a good episode, but… In general, there have been many such cases over the years. We will not go into detail now, because it will be a separate reference, so let’s deviate a little from the topic.

Today, Azerbaijan celebrates the day of the country’s armed forces. The Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan emphasized in his address to the army.

“The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, considers military construction and defense issues a priority. And last year, the military parade dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the Victory held in Baku on November 8 was the result of the daily increase of our country’s military power and its display to the whole world.”

After that, Hasanov continued that the army should remain faithful to the constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan (it contains territorial claims against Armenia. – M.P.), strengthen its combat and morale-psychological preparation.

And the Azerbaijani propaganda machine “distributed” various propaganda materials on the occasion of the Day of the Azerbaijani Army, from which if we remove the toast and pathos part, we can also find some rational formulations.

First, the Aliyev regime admits “Conqueror of Karabakh” (“Conqueror/liberator of Karabakh”) under this military-political discourse for domestic consumption, before 2016, Aliyev started the purchase of new weapons, training of personnel, ordered to conduct military exercises to capture the “occupied territories” with the playing of episodes and operations. And, as the Baku propaganda machine notes, in April 2016, Aliyev tried to bring the new army, or the armed forces of his country following the path of the new army, into combat.

During the April 2016 war, the Armenian side managed to defeat the Baku super-problem with some territorial losses. And Aliyev for 4 years with new momentum prepared of the large-scale war that took place already in 2020. on September 27, as they say, the war started at the most convenient time.

Second, as confirmation of the first point, one of the Azerbaijani propaganda media in the context of the 44-day war in the editorial emphasizes: there are problems, which are solved by the soldier and the commander on the battlefield, and there are problems that the state must solve.

This is what we have written about many times after the war: the war is conducted by the state, the army fights on the battlefield, so the entire responsibility for the defeat in the war cannot be placed on the army, which is what Nikol Pashinyan did and is doing. That’s what we’re for to write Also, it should be clearly stated in percentage terms: what is the political leadership’s share in the 44-day defeat, and how much is the military leadership’s and the army’s, and if the army did not accomplish any task, how much is the political leadership’s fault, and how much is the military leadership’s and command’s?

Third, Baku’s propaganda machine, despite the above, also draws attention to an important circumstance: modern technologies, high-tech weapons should be emphasized, but victory depends not only on technologies, but also on the fighting spirit and morale of the army and soldiers.

Isn’t this the truth, and what did Nikol Pashinyan’s government do so that the spirit of the Armenian soldier, officer and commander is not damaged during the war? Are we not harming the morale and psychological state of the RA army after the war and until now, including by constraining, under-emphasizing and reducing the importance?

fourth, The leadership of Azerbaijan and the Aliyev propaganda machine once again state that today the Azerbaijani army is stronger than it was during the 44-day war, although the reforms in the armed forces began a long time ago. Yes, after the war, with the help of Turkey, the Baku army took the path of having a Turkish model army, which, perhaps, has not ended. Even today, new military units are being created in Azerbaijan, the number of special purpose or “Commando” units is increasing.

And the Baku propaganda machine gives an answer to this, stating:

“We “liberated our territory” and solved our military problems. And we are not planning to seize foreign lands. But it is not for nothing that it was said in ancient Rome“If you want peace, prepare for war,” because we live in a very troubled world… And, as in the past, so today, heaven is under the “umbrella” of swords.

It should be noted that in the analysis of caliber.az, which is close to the Azerbaijan Defense Army, for example, one can also find victorious episodes related to the Armenian army. In particular, the media wrote The casualties of the Azerbaijani side during the July 2020 battles There are 12 եղել՝ 12 soldiers, officers, that is, 3 times more than the Armenian side had.

We we wrote that Azerbaijan, in particular, lost its own during the July battles Chief of Staff of the Third Army Corps, Major General Polad Hashimov, as well as: 3Chief of Artillery of the 1st Army Corps, Colonel Ilgar Mirzaev and other officers.

Moreover, we reported that after the July battles, the mother of the Azerbaijani general Polad Hashimov had announced that in fact his son was “killed” by Kerim Veliyev, the current head of the General Staff of Azerbaijan, who was the country’s deputy defense minister at that time, that is, based on various motives, the military leadership of Azerbaijan sent Polad Hashimov to the place of combat operations, calculating that he would not return from there. Of course, Aliyev’s family “closed” Hashimov’s mother’s “mouth” with their special attention. And they demanded responsibility for their general during the “trial” in Baku.

About the resistance of the Armenian armed forces in the context of the 44-day war spoke also Aliyev, stressing not once that Karvachar, Lachin, Aghdam could not be taken by force, that there was strong resistance.

After the war, even specially from Azerbaijani military experts emphasize are the brilliant work of the Armenian artillery during the 44-day war, when Azerbaijan already had NATO-standard artillery at that time.

On the occasion of their Army Day, Aliyev signed decrees for posthumous and non-posthumous awards, as well as for 5 soldiers has been granted military rank of major general, moreover, 2 of them Gulmamed Tofik oglu Rzayev (chief of artillery) and Ruslan Dunyameddin oglu Aghasiev (chief of staff of one of the army corps) participated in the 44-day war of 2020, moreover, Agasiyev also participated in the April war of 2016 and the “anti-terrorist operation” in Artsakh in September 2023 participated:

Aliyev for his services awarded to one of the young generals, Farid Alibaba oglu Aliyev, who is currently the acting head of the Main Department of Military-Technical Supply (Support) of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan.

By the way, on one occasion we wrote that high positions in the Azerbaijani army are entrusted to the heroes of the 44-day war and those who are familiar with the subtleties of the Turkish army, and that behind personnel changes in the Azerbaijani armed forces is standing Commander of the Ground Forces – Deputy Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, Lieutenant General Hikmet Mirzoev.

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