AZERBAIJAN HAS ADOPTED NEW WARFARE TACTICS

Siranuysh Papyan, Interviewer
Interview – 25 March 2015, 15:06

Interview with Gagik Karapetyan, military expert

Mr. Karapetyan, is the video of the 24-year-old serviceman Andranik
allegedly deserting to the Azerbaijani side real or staged?

I don’t know any details at the moment, only the information provided
by the media.

What is the cause of the border skirmish of the past week?

Tension has been something regular, and we always try to link
skirmishes to something, which is not right, I believe, because
Azerbaijan has a clear tactics, nothing happens without a purpose,
especially such skirmishes that result in a high toll. In other words,
this is one way, tactics of waging a war, one of the modern ways which
Azerbaijan uses trying to resolve certain problems for its benefit but,
in fact, it fails so far. It can be reconnaissance, check of alertness
of front units, test of our fast response but it would not be right
to link it to something happening inside or outside the region.

What do the recent operations killing 3 and injuring 4 indicate?

If you know, a rather big detachment of the enemy penetrated. It
is impossible to eliminate possibilities of penetration by mining
the fields and using state-of-the-art equipment because these can
be bypassed. Everything is created by man and it is always possible
to find ways of counteracting or avoiding what is man-made. Second,
since our border guards were startled, this explains the number of
casualties. However, the counteraction was such that they even chased
the escaping special troops up to their base and destroyed them. In
other words, the preparedness of our fast action groups proved that
our special units are well-prepared and are always ready to perform
their tasks.

The situation has been tense since January and has not mitigated so
far. What is the reason?

It should be noted that their tactics of causing escalation changed
last August, not this January. If earlier they used the tactics
of snipers and firing, the reconnaissance-in-action was adopted in
August. Then they will adopt another tactics. In brief, this is a
matter of tactics.

There is an opinion that border tension will relatively go down in late
April, after the centenary of the Genocide. Do you share this opinion?

There is no need to link it to this solely. Yes, it is possible that
this is a tactics of appearing to the political arena, to raise their
voice but it is impossible to claim that tension will go away in late
April and the situation will change because, as I said, this is a
way of waging a war adopted by Azerbaijan today.

On these days there are deliberations that 18-19-year-olds should
not be at the front line to avoid so many victims.

They always have victims during a war. As soon as we have a
professional army, those 18-19-year-olds will not be there. Perhaps
it was Alexander the Great’s policy not to recruit those who did not
have heirs. Perhaps, it is correct, on the one hand. On the other hand,
our 18-19-year-old soldiers have proved for a number of times that they
are ready to cope with specially trained troops and defeat them even
in wrestling. Hence, I see no problem here. There is another problem,
alternative to not conscripting 18-19-year-olds. The border must be
equipped with state-of-the-art reconnaissance equipment which will
help detect advancements of the enemy and meet them without victims
or minimize victims.

And what do we have at the border, is our equipment new, we can see
Azerbaijan continuously arming its army?

I don’t have precise information of what new equipment the border
installations are equipped with but I can state that there are projects
of equipping the border in the future. As to the equipment, it should
not be stated now because the enemy always tries to get the antipode.

In fact, we are at war now, aren’t we?

Whatever definition we give it, we cannot escape the fact, yes,
in fact, we are at war. These belligerent actions have not grown
to active actions, aggressive or defensive fights but in fact this
is trench warfare with all the rules of warfare. And in fact, our
borders are invincible, we are performing our job.

Shouldn’t the generals who are periodically talking about the border
be present at the front line?

Nzhdeh said the Armenian soldiers want their commander to go ahead
of them, other nations, such as Muslim Temur army thought that their
leaders should be in the rear. The Armenians want the generals to be
at the front line, the task of the general is bigger, more far-fetched,
larger in scale than just physical present in the trench.

Simply we must realize that a general must not be in the trench, if
yes, only in case of large-scale actions but the second or third line,
not on the front line, to be able to organize the fight and plan the
actions. This is the task of the general, and the soldier’s task is
to stand in the trench and protect it.

Are we going to respond to the latest operations?

We always have it in our arsenal. Time will show how we will respond.