AZERBAIJAN’S DEFENCE MINISTRY STOKES WAR OF WORDS WITH ARMENIA

news.az
April 28 2010
Azerbaijan

The Defence Ministry in Baku has issued a statement talking up
Azerbaijan’s military capacity and accusing the Armenians of running
scared.

It is the latest in a tit-for-tat exchange of comments which began
with a meeting at the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry, chaired by
President Aliyev.

‘The well-grounded statements made by Mr President, Supreme
Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev at the meeting of the Defence Ministry
on 23 April, Minister Safar Abiyev’s report to the head of state that
the army is ready to fight and other statements prompted a wide
response not only in the region, but also in the whole world,’ Defence
Ministry spokesman Lt-Col Eldar Sabiroglu said in the statement issued
today.

He described the meeting last Friday as very significant.

‘No doubt the results of the meeting will be seen. If Azerbaijan
starts to liberate the occupied lands, Armenia will inevitably be
defeated. The provision of our army with modern weapons, military
vehicles, the combat spirit of our soldiers, the unanimity of the
president and people create great opportunities for it. The question
may arise: why is the process being delayed?

‘The work done, Azerbaijan’s efforts for the resolution of the
conflict give grounds to say that there is no need to seek a secret
reason for this. The only factor is that our country hoped the
activity of the Minsk Group and other international institutions
towards the peaceful solution to the conflict would produce results.

Azerbaijan did not want bloodshed in the region again. This was the
essence of Mr President’s speech at the meeting. But as has been seen,
Armenia and some known forces impede the realization of our peaceful
policy. Is there any other way in the present circumstances? Of
course, not,’ he said.

The Armenian Defence Ministry said after the 23 April meeting that its
army was more combat-ready than ever. Eldar Sabiroglu dismissed their
response and indirectly accused Armenia of hiding under Russian
protection.

‘If the ministry of the enemy country, which was trying to remind us
with its statement, could refresh its rusty memory and see the truth
without dirty tricks, it would realize who, i.e. which country,
"presented" Azerbaijani land to Armenia during the first
Nagorno-Karabakh war. It seems we need to repeat it. Armenia is not
brave enough to wage war alone. It is encouraged by the forces in
whose shadow it takes refuge.

‘We are probably making ourselves clear. Otherwise [Armenian Defence
Minister] Seyran Ohanyan, who is the killer of children, and others
like him, could not boast of "heroism". The world knows about the
troubles of whales at the bottom of the ocean, but closes its eyes to
the Armenian disease…’

‘The supreme commander-in-chief said the Azerbaijani land had been
occupied for long years with no basis in international law and our
cultural, religious and historic monuments had been destroyed in all
the occupied lands, our mosques ruined and historic exhibits stolen
from our museums by Armenian vandals.

‘The president said we could not endure such cruelty and injustice. We
must ensure that we can liberate our land by force at any time. If we
look at the history of war, we can see one truth. There are occasional
cases in history when a country at war has fired on the holy site of
another country and looted everything in its path. One of these few
dreadful cases is the Armenian vandalism that we faced at the end of
the 20th and start of the 21st century.’

Sabiroglu said the Armenian Defence Ministry’s statement showed that
the Armenians were afraid.

‘Therefore they try to protect themselves by making stupid and false
ideas statements, their domestic situation is bad. I would like to
finish by quoting the chief of the Armenian General Staff, Yuriy
Khachaturov, as reported by News Armenia several days ago. He said:
"If almost an equal number of recruits were called in 2004-2009,
thanks to which we were able to maintain the proper level of staffing,
from 2010 to 2016 we will have problems and the number of conscripts
will decrease." We have not changed a word. But Khachaturov seems to
have stepped back from the problem. Last year the Armenian Defence
Ministry could not staff several military units because of a lack of
conscripts. I think there is no need for comment.’