Ekspress, Azerbaijan
May 11 2013
Is Armenia preparing for war?
Zahid Oruc : Steps must be taken in cold blood and with full
consideration of the real military and security situation
by Aqil Aslan
Armenian Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan has said that the armed
forces have begun a large-scale upgrade of their hardware. He said
that the military will receive new military hardware and types of
weapons, and the existing hardware will be upgraded: “We are regularly
making renewals in the army. Now we plan more-large scale efforts in
this direction. These projects will also be conducted within the
framework of establishing joint ventures with Russia and Poland.”
What does the armament of the Armenian military and upgrade of their
military hardware signify? A member of the Milli Maclis security and
defence committee, MP Zahid Oruc, told Ekspress that Ohanyan’s
statement may be linked to the domestic situation of the Sargsyan
regime.
The MP also believes that there are also messages addressed to
Azerbaijan here: “First, we have to consider that Armenia is actually
Russia’s military plant. Under the guise of some upgrades there are
plans to move to the southern flank various industrial facilities and
to begin their immediate production. In itself this is completely in
favour of Armenia because many weapons bought some time ago are
getting obsolete or are used in Karabakh where the cease-fire is
breached daily. However, dependence on Russia persists too. In this
situation, undoubtedly, Seyran Ohanyan’s remarks show more precisely
that they see Russia as their main partner in upgrading weapons. A
more precise way to put it would be to say that Russia provides all of
the weapons for the Armenian servicemen.”
The MP said that currently Armenia tends to build defence
fortifications and therefore it attempts to mainly procure tanks and
other hardware: “Meanwhile, intelligence reports too often say that
Armenians no longer work on weapons with long reach. [Azerbaijani
Defence Minister] Safar Abiyev had said that today Azerbaijan is
capable of hitting any place in Armenia. This means that Azerbaijan
does not want to wage the war in small border areas.”
Oruc also provided an interesting piece of information. Russia refuses
to disclose the specifications of some weapons that it sold to
Azerbaijan, he said. “Russia has sold weapons to Azerbaijan as well.
By keeping many of their specifications a military secret it is
damaging us. I openly state that Russians are not reliable partners.
They keep to themselves secret informational control in many different
areas and do not provide it to Azerbaijan. I cannot say to what extent
they share it with Armenians,” the MP said.
According to him, Azerbaijan must step up adequate measures and regard
Ohanyan’s statement is not only an element in the information war, but
also as an indication that Armenia, in a certain sense, is going
through a process of armament. “Certainly, I do not hold the view that
there must be a continuous arms race in the region. This is a trap, an
international trap, a game engineered by weapons manufacturers. They
wish to make us fight like Iran and Iraq and spend our oil dollars on
weapons. Arming Armenia to a degree is part of Russia’s project to
sell bigger batches of weapons to Azerbaijan. I believe that steps
must be taken in cold blood and with full consideration of the real
military security situation.”
[Translated from Azeri]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Disclaimer: This article was contributed and translated into English by Emil Lazarian. While we strive for quality, the views and accuracy of the content remain the responsibility of the contributor. Please verify all facts independently before reposting or citing.
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