Military experts on the buttressing of the Armenian army and the tasks of the Azerbaijani armed forces

Baku/12.08.21/Turan: Over the past few months, the Armenian military leadership has been actively engaged in replenishing their armed forces arsenal, including with the help of Russia, the Sputnik-Armenia news agency reported.

"Foundations have been laid for a long-term army reform that includes not only the purchase of new types of weapons but personnel training, transformations in the management sphere. Also, a range of tasks has been outlined to be carried out by the military leadership. In particular, the Armenian army is projected to be rebuilt in line with the Russian model and patterns. As a part of the reform, it is suggested to seriously strengthen the role of the Minister of Defense. At present, the position of the Minister is largely administrative, "civil" in nature while the head of the General Staff reports back to him formally only. Strengthening of the Minister institution implies a certain expansion of his powers, the transfer of rather specific, including military, functions.

Another important component of the upcoming transformations will be the multiple strengthening of the Joint Armenian-Russian Group of Troops. At present, the JARG includes units of the 5th army corps of the Armenian armed forces and the 102nd military base stationed in the Republic. The perspective model assumes the inclusion of all the armed forces of Armenia in this military unit. The planned goals involve enormous routine work and billions of financial injections aimed both at personnel training and purchase of modern types of weapons, " the Armenian media writes.

It should be added that Turan appealed to Azerbaijani experts in the field of defense to assess the prospects of strengthening the Armenian army and possible responses from the Azerbaijani armed forces.

Political commentator Vyugar Seyidov believes that the basis of all reforms in the army is money. "Should the Armenians find at least an extra one billion dollars a year, then in 10-15 years we would be able to see a formidable force in front of us. If the Armenians want to have a modern and efficient army faster, they should use 4-5 billion a year. In this case, they will be able to fight with us, at least,  in 3 years," V. Seyidov said.

The Armenians are talking about closer integration of their troops with the Russians. As a matter of fact, the point is about unification of their troops with the Russian army. At present, the Armenian and Russian armed forces are more integrated than the United NATO Grouping in Europe formally and secretly led by the Americans and the Bundeswehr. Suffice it to say that the Russians and Armenians have a single air defense expanse that included the air defense over Karabakh.

As a matter of fact, we fought directly with the help of the Russian air defense in Karabakh. In 90% of cases, Armenian officers study at Russian military schools and academies. It is obvious that the closer integration will make their armies simply united. Armenia will become a part of the southern military district of the Russian Federation.

If earlier the 102nd base of the Russian armed forces was an outpost of the combat formations of the southern military district, now the whole of Armenia will be its territory. When there is a military situation for Russia in the world, then the leadership of the military district of the Russian Federation will subordinate the civil power of the Armenians.

The life will show how far the Armenians are prepared to this scenario for the sake of the Karabakh occupation. When it comes to the restructuring of the army in keeping with Russian patterns. Was it really built in line with German patterns? The Armenian army, starting from combat regulations, educational and methodological process and weapons, was exclusively based on the Russian standards. It is the organizational and staff structures only that take into account local demographic realities and mobilization potential.

Should the Armenian armed forces be pulled up closer to the Russian patterns, they would not simply be able to physically deploy the necessary number of combat formations. These are not Napoleonic times today when you can fight with a limited number of well-armed and trained "touring" formations in the theater of military operations. No matter how trained it is, such an army is doomed to defeat in the fight against an army balanced by the number of combat formations, " added Vyugar Seyidov.

Military expert Adalet Verdiyev shared his view with Turan as saying that since there is no military industry in the Armenian-populated part of Karabakh, therefore, all military equipment is brought from Yerevan and then official Baku has questions to ask to the commander of the peacekeepers, Gen. Muradov.

"If Armenia continues to violate the Joint Statement of November 9, 2020, then Azerbaijan should not wait for Armenia to rearm. Based on the same Statement, Baku should launch a counter-terrorist operation in Khankendi and the Zangezur corridor." 

At present, A. Veliyev added, the Azerbaijani army is successful in performing many operations on this track. However, this is not reported openly. - 0-