Reserve Officers Accuse the Government of Discriminating Against the Military

On Tuesday, the public association "Officers in the reserve" held a round-table meeting on the topic of vacation of military servants. Chair of the Association, Yashar Jafarli believes that this is a serious problem. Azerbaijani legislation outlines rules for unused vacation time. According to Jafarli, in the period 1995 to July 2010, problems with vacation entitlement was reviewed by the courts. In July 2010, a law was passed. According to a presidential decree, the Cabinet of Ministers was requested for two months to take effective steps in this direction. The government took steps two years later, in September 2012. Under this decision, military service personnel who retired before July 2010 will not be paid compensation for unused vacation.

The public association regards this decision as a violation of the equality between members. The Minister of Defense upheld this decision on November 12, 2012. The public association called the ministerial order ‘unreasonable’. The organization intends to hold a picket in front of the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Defense, and sent a notice in this regard to the metropolitan municipality.

Yashar Jafarli noted an increase in the number of deaths in the armed forces. He sees army leadership as the reason for the increase. He accused the commanders of the military units because the deaths of soldiers are treated as statistics. This issue has been included on the agenda since 2003; however, the number of deaths in the army continues to increase. The organization believes that the way out of the situation will be found in a change of direction for the army, and strengthening control of civil society over the army. In the absence of changes in the future, the number of casualties may rise.