British Ministry of Defence funds English lessons for Azeri officers

Ekho, Baku
27 Mar 04

Ekho newspaper has learnt that at the moment nearly 20 Azerbaijani
navy officers are intensively studying English with the help of the
British Council. The latter is involved in cultural and education
activities in Azerbaijan. The British Council’s marketing manager,
Namiq Quliyev, has told Ekho that their organization has actually
organized a course for officers of the Azerbaijani armed forces.

“The course is being held not at the British Council office, but on
the territory of the National Military Academy. This is a joint
project of the British Ministry of Defence and the Azerbaijani
Ministry of Defence. The purpose is to teach officers
English. Generally speaking, this programme is being implemented in a
number of CIS countries and is called Peacekeeping English Project.
The British Ministry of Defence has been implementing this project
jointly with the defence ministries of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia,
Uzbekistan, Ukraine, etc,” Quliyev said.

According to Quliyev, the newly-independent countries, thus, get an
opportunity to be closely involved in NATO’s Partnership for Peace
Programme and other international military events. “Precisely for this
reason, the British Ministry of Defence has organized this project and
the British Council has been administering it on CIS territory.” The
British side covers all project costs.

There are several English language classes in our country. A total of
50 army and navy officers are attending the classes.

[Passage omitted: Details of project]

In turn, the head of the press service of the Azerbaijani Ministry of
Defence, Ramiz Malikov, has said that “several English courses have
been organized for our officers “. According to him, all branches of
troops cannot be engaged in the training, but officers from different
branches of troops are represented at the courses.

“These courses are obviously to ensure more effective interaction
between our officers and foreign officers during exercises. Studying
English by officers is one of the conditions of the army’s proximity
to NATO standards. Our officers study English not only in Baku, but
also in Turkey, the USA, Hungary and so on. One should first learn to
speak one language, then it will be easier to learn NATO standards,”
Malikov said.