Withdrawn troops will be reserve border guards - expert

The decision of the Azerbaijani leadership to replace part of the armed forces that guarded the border in the Gazakh-Agstafa regions with border guards is a step forward in developing relations with Armenia, Alexander Skakov, an employee of the Central Asia, Caucasus and Ural-Volga Region Studies, told NEWS.am.

"The change of the negotiator (leadership) in Armenia prompted Azerbaijan to take a step forward. This is the reason for such a sharp change in approaches, taking into account the fact that for many years Azerbaijan did not want to make any concessions, including in the matter of withdrawing snipers and heavy equipment from the borders with Armenia. Now Baku will wait for adequate measures from Yerevan," said Alexander Skakov. Armenians assess the withdrawal of the army and the involvement of border guards to protect the regions adjacent to Armenia by Baku"s intention to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh.

From the side of Azerbaijanis are observed active movements, partial active construction works are being carried out in Karabakh and on the Nakhichevan-Vayk segment. Certain changes are also being made in the deployment of troops," said the former intelligence commander in the Karabakh war, Vova Vartanov. "Their border troops are very interesting, somewhat different from ours. Now the border troops must be deployed in the Kazakh section. This means that they will remove one full-fledged brigade from the border of Armenia and if necessary they will have the opportunity to increase the number of troops in the direction of Artsakh. In front of the Armenian troops in the Tavush region, they will install less armed but well-prepared border troops, and they will have at least one more brigade in reserve, which they will transfer from Kazakh, but again in Shamkhor"s corps. And they will be able to attack the Karabakh with new forces, said V. Vartanov. The administrator of the AzeriDefens military site, Rashad Suleymanov, published on Facebook a detailed analysis of the significance of the replacement of troops on the frontier troops in the Gazakh and Agstafa regions of Azerbaijan.

First he noted that the army has been guarding this section of the border for 26 years, the surrender of the border to the border troops had been carried out for a long time. At first, contract soldiers-volunteers did not serve in the border troops, as in the army. However, the border guards fought in Karabakh, guarded the 700-kilometer border with Iran, Russia and Georgia, fought with the members of Sadval, Forest Brothers, religious radicals in the south, and other separatist terrorists. Currently, the border guards provide 24-hour security of the sea and land borders of the country. Since 2005, the process of admitting contract servicemen to the Border Troops has been under way with the appointment of conscripted soldiers to the places. Now a significant part of the border guards are contract soldiers, which increases the combat readiness of these units. In 2017, the Coast Guard, the Operational Response Force, the Command of the Border Troops and the Border Control were created as part of the Border Guard Service, which led to the expansion of service capabilities. Military personnel are equipped with the most modern weapons.

The withdrawal of troops from these areas allowed the rotation of military units, which for years did not leave their positions, to restore and strengthen forces and equipment. These units are not eliminated, on the contrary, they will be strengthened and applied as a reserve in the region. In case of need, these units will repel the attack of the enemy along with the border guards. One way or another, the frontier guards should protect the border;

The armament of the Border Guard Service is designed not only to guard the border, but also to repel the enemy attack. In the battles of April 2016, the Harop fire systems (Israeli strike drones), which were armed with border guards, destroyed the enemy"s forces in the depths of his defense. From the videos of the Border Troops, it can be seen that they are armed with modern mobile mortars, electronic warfare equipment, modern long-range intelligence systems, tanks, aircraft and highly mobile armored vehicles. Border troops are able to carry out operations in the rear of the enemy, and the snipers of this service are the best in Azerbaijan. In the last 6-7 years, the exercises conducted by the Border Troops at the Aggel training ground imitated military scenarios possible in the Kazakh-Agstafa zone. At times, the personnel of the Frontier Service were sent to this zone to study its features.

There is no doubt that the transfer of this area to the Border Guards will improve border security. Border guards adhere to the principles of "saw - hit" and "fivefold revenge." In the first year of the service of border guards, it will be possible to observe the resettlement of residents of neighboring Armenian villages into the depths of Armenia, there will be more news about the death of enemy soldiers and officers in Noyemberyan and Tavush, construction of a protective wall on the Armenian side will begin, and in 3-4 years Armenian doctors will say about growth nerve diseases among the local population," wrote an expert from AzeriDefens website.