BAKU STAKES AT THE ARMY: AZERBAIJAN INCREASES ITS MILITARY EXPENDITURES
by Sohbet Mamedov, Alexander Zhelenin

Agency WPS
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
September 10, 2007 Monday
Russia

Defense And Security

Azerbaijan is going to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem with
assistance of the armed forces; Azerbaijan received a new argument in
the dialogue with Armenia about the "occupied territories." President
Ilham Aliev has said that Baku stakes at the army and will increase
the military article of the state budget in the future. Expenditures
on the armed forces will exceed $1 billion. According to the President
of Azerbaijan, such measures are dictated by the situation because
"the country is in a state of war."

Azerbaijan received a new argument in the dialogue with Armenia about
the "occupied territories." President Ilham Aliev has said that Baku
stakes at the army and will increase the military article of the state
budget in the future. Expenditures on the armed forces will exceed $1
billion. According to the President of Azerbaijan, such measures are
dictated by the situation because "the country is in a state of war."

Baku is not going to keep tolerating the occupation of about 20% of
its territory which has continued for almost 15 years. President of
Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev, announced this at a consultation dedicated
to "problems of refugees and migrants driven from their native
lands as a result of the military aggression of Armenia against
Azerbaijan." Aliev holds these consultations once a year and they are
usually dedicated to the settlement of certain issues and a discussion
of the negotiation process on resolving the "Armenian-Azerbaijani
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict." Azerbaijani authorities insist on exactly
this definition when they speak about the conflict between the two
neighboring countries. The current speech of the president means
that Baku is discontent with the negotiation process. The President
of Azerbaijan states, "Armenia should understand that drawing out
the conflict may cause more serious consequences." He added that
he instructed the relevant agencies to plan an amount exceeding $1
billion in the state budget for 2008 for the needs of the army.

According to official data, there are 75,000 servicemen in the armed
forces of Azerbaijan now. The present-day Azerbaijani army is well
trained and is armed with modern armament and military hardware. The
restoration of the military industrial complex is being done quickly.

According to Yashar Dzhafarli, chair of the public association of
officers of the reserve and retired officers, in case of beginning a
second war, an attack on the Azerbaijani forces will be done not only
towards Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven occupied districts around it
but along the entire perimeter of the border with Armenia.

Alexander Sharavin, director of the analytical department of the
institute of political and military analysis, says that "although
the military budget of Azerbaijan is bigger than the entire budget
of Armenia, it is difficult to imagine that Azerbaijan has really
acquired such military might that it can defeat Nagorno-Karabakh."

The expert adds that Azerbaijan, like the other Transcaucasian
republics, is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
and to achieve a serious advantage over Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh
it will need to quit the treaty.

In turn, Ivan Safranchuk, director of the Russian representative office
of the institute of international security, explains the statements
of Aliev saying that "after opening the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
pipeline, Azerbaijan felt its importance for Europe and the West as a
whole." According to Safranchuk, Europe encountered the blackmailing
of a transit country like Azerbaijan for the first time. This meant
that Europeans encountered what Russia had experienced in its relations
with the Ukraine and Belarus through the territories of which Russian
gas and oil were flowing to the West.

Safranchuk adds that now Azerbaijan "as supplier and transit country
for energy resources supply to the West starts bringing its issues"
to the agenda of Europe and does this very harshly and not only in
the field of energy.