“We should not repeat the mistakes made by Armenia years ago”

The Azerbaijani parliament, the Milli Majlis, approved amendments to the laws governing the status of military personnel and labor pensions during a session on December 5. The notable change involves an extension of the retirement age for servicemen in the country.

Previously, military personnel were eligible for retirement after completing 20 years of military service. However, in the wake of the amendments, this threshold has been raised by five years, requiring 25 years of service for retirement eligibility. The bill also raises the final age for active-duty servicemen, ensigns, and midshipmen in peacetime from 45 to 48. Additionally, the pension supplement tied to the length of service has been increased from 50 to 65 percent. The rationale behind these changes is attributed to the desire to further leverage the accumulated experience of military personnel.

To understand the potential implications of this legislative shift, ASTNA sought the insights of military expert Uzeyir Jafarov. 

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Question: What provisions provided for by the legislation in connection with the retirement of military personnel are planned to be changed in Azerbaijan?

Answer: I think that now there is absolutely no need to change the provisions on retirement of military personnel, and that in a few years we will see how wrong and unjustified this step was. The talk that the alleged amount of pension that military personnel receive upon retirement will be increased is not true. Only those who think about the material can have such an approach. In fact, this step will lead to the fact that in the future thousands of people will refuse to choose a military profession. Despite repeated comprehensive discussions, numerous professional conclusions, after clarifying the opinion of the general public on the legality of discussing such steps, some people, far from military affairs in every sense of the word, still persist. It is noteworthy that even senior officials in law enforcement agencies for some reason do not dare to express their opinion.

Question: If the changes are adopted, how will they affect the military?

Answer: As mentioned above, in this short period of time, discussions have already caused great concern in the Armed Forces and the Army.  The fact that after the 1st reading in the Milli Majlis, a group of deputies also hastily made a statement to the press for the first time in parliamentary practice, unable to correctly substantiate their thoughts, is proof of what we have said that in the future this step will be a very bad example.  And although the military did not speak out, I personally received thousands of appeals - they are against such unprofessional steps.

Question: The government and members of Parliament claim that all this will serve to increase professionalism. Or, raising the retirement age creates an opportunity for officers to stay in positions longer and rise in ranks. How true is this justification?

Answer: Let some people with a very weak understanding of military affairs who make such statements think about bringing the legislation left over from the USSR into a form that meets modern requirements. Military legislation must be updated and brought into line with the requirements of the 21st century. For some reason, many members of the Milli Majlis have never really been in the difficult and honorable military service themselves. How can they state  not that new changes are a step towards a positive. No. These are just steps taken by a group of people who do not know their work deeply, but try to present themselves as innovators.  I think that such changes will greatly reduce interest in serving in the army and in a few years we will have to think about changing this law again.

Question: What is the age limit and length of service of military personnel in the regions and CIS countries, as well as in neighboring countries?

Answer: Some of our officials want to bring all the harmful and negative examples available in the region and the CIS countries, and in some cases even apply them.  We must bring examples of fraternal Turkiye, Pakistan, and other progressive states to our model. We are an independent state. We must develop our army and the Armed Forces in general in accordance with our national and State interests. We must apply all the positive examples that exist around.  And if we are a winning country, we should think more about the financial well-being of our Armed Forces.

Question: What is the main purpose of the government taking this step?

Answer: I think that by taking this step, they want to create the appearance of moving in a positive direction, but this has the opposite effect, and we will subsequently witness very bad statistics. The government, instead of thinking about monetary compensation for food, official registration of war participants, benefits for war participants, the government talks about some kind of pseudo-care, indulges in fantasies about pseudo-work that creates such tension.

Question: What are your suggestions?

Answer: I think haste in such matters is completely unacceptable and law enforcement agencies should take steps in accordance with objective and reality-based facts.  In recent years, they have made many big mistakes under the pretext of allegedly saving financial resources. Salary cuts and some proposals that are allegedly trying to be implemented under the guise of rotation have led to serious confusion. Yes, after the resolution of the Karabakh issue, the military legislative base of Azerbaijan should be updated and improved. The law on alternative service should finally be adopted.  There's a lot to do.  The proposals put forward for discussion now are not correct and correct. Let them conduct an anonymous survey among the military and find out the opinion of professionals.  Such mistakes are unacceptable. We should not repeat the mistakes made by Armenia years ago and which it cannot overcome today. It will be very difficult for us in the coming years.   This is not some kind of civil sphere. The talk is about important changes related to the defense and security of Azerbaijan.