PanArmenian News
Jan 18 2005

I DO NOT WISH TO FIGHT AND OTHERS WILL NOT GO EITHER, FORMER
COMMANDER OF AZERI BRIGADE SAYS

18.01.2005 18:04

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ I will not fight for Azerbaijan anymore,
41-year-old retired Colonel Azer Rustamov said in his interview with
Azeri weekly Obozrevatel.net (1/7/05 and 1/14/05). “I do not wish to
fight and others will not go either. They’ll prefer to trade in
bazaars”, he continues. Azer Rustamov is a veteran of Afghanistan and
Karabakh wars, who was decorated with Red Star soviet order as well
as by both Elchibey and Aliyev governments. He recollects the battles
in Karabakh in summer 1992. “About a hundred of Chechen volunteers
headed by Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev helped us a lot. But
suffering great losses they had to leave. Eventually Rustamov rose to
the rank of full Colonel and commander of a brigade in Fizuli
district (1999-2001). He resigned from the military in 2003. “If war
breaks out now I am not sure whether I’ll fight. I witnessed the
attitude showed towards the memory of the killed and those, who
remained invalid after the war. The army, of course, will fight for a
certain period. But what will happen when their depleted ranks would
need to be replenished? Who will go if over two million people now
work in Russia?” A. Rustamov also sibjects to criticism the foreign
policy pursued by the leadership, which presumes unreasoned
statements addressed to Russia. It is interesting that the Red Star
order he received in the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan late last
year. At present he is focused on formation of “Combat Brotherhood,”
an NGO that would focus on veterans of Afghanistan and other wars.