The federal government of Azerbaijan is ready to extend the nation’s protection and nationwide safety price range in 2023.
A complete of 5.3 billion Azerbaijani manats or $3.1 billion is predicted to go for strengthening the protection capabilities and nationwide safety of Azerbaijan. The rise in funds is mirrored within the draft regulation “On the State Price range of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2023,” based on native media reviews.
Azerbaijan budgeted practically 4.5 billion manats or $2.64 billion to strengthen protection and nationwide safety each in 2022 and 2021.
Given the fixed threats from neighboring Armenia, Azerbaijan’s army spending was on the rise, particularly, after a bloody 44-day struggle in 2020. The post-war uneasiness on the border with Armenia and the unlawful presence of Armenian detachments within the territories of Azerbaijan briefly monitored by Russian peacekeepers have been pushing Baku to retain and strengthen the fight functionality of the nationwide military.
Armenia and Azerbaijan had been locked in an armed battle for the reason that early Nineteen Nineties when Armenia launched a army offensive in opposition to Azerbaijan. The bloody struggle ended with a ceasefire in 1994, which noticed Armenia forcibly occupying 20 p.c of Azerbaijan’s internationally acknowledged territories. On September 27, 2020, the decades-old battle between the 2 international locations spiraled after Armenia’s forces deployed within the occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled army positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. The assaults triggered the Azerbaijani forces to take fast counter-offensive measures to push again the assault. The struggle ended with a decisive victory of the Azerbaijani military, which liberated greater than 300 settlements, together with the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha, from practically 30-year-long unlawful Armenian occupation. The struggle resulted in a tripartite assertion signed on November 10, 2020, by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia. Below the assertion, Armenia additionally returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.
Throughout and after the struggle, President Aliyev revealed Azerbaijan’s intention to strengthen the nationwide military primarily based on the Turkish mannequin however on a smaller scale. Following the struggle, as a part of the military’s improve in step with the Turkish army experience, all-new Commando models had been created in areas with troublesome terrain.
In 2021 and 2022, President Aliyev inaugurated new models of Commando forces, the personnel of which has been by weeks-long “Commando preparation” programs in Türkiye below the direct involvement and steerage of Turkish army specialists.
Protection Minister of Azerbaijan, Colonel-Basic Zakir Hasanov stated the post-war army-building course of focused primarily upgrading the organizational and workers construction, in addition to the weapons arsenal of the nationwide military.
“Principally, the administration system has been modified. The utilized improvements had been very profitable and this was demonstrated within the final battles. New Commando army models might be established. A number of such army models have already been created,” he informed journalists on the “Saha Expo” Protection and Aerospace Exhibition in Türkiye on Tuesday.
Hasanov added that the Azerbaijani military was additionally enthusiastic about quite a lot of army tools exhibited on the “Saha Expo”, and had already contracted the acquisition of a lot of them.
Within the meantime, Azerbaijan is more likely to attain a preliminary settlement with the Turkish HAVELSAN protection firm for the acquisition of the BARKAN unmanned floor fight car, based on the Report information company. HAVELSAN venture supervisor Veysel Ataoglu stated BARKAN might be handed over to the Azerbaijan Armed Forces within the close to future.
The BARKAN unmanned car is able to carrying or towing hundreds, offering shut safety, armed reconnaissance, and detonating mines and unexploded ordnance. The primary pattern of BARKAN was rolled out in March-April 2022 earlier than its profitable check launch by the Turkish Armed Forces.
