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Why is South Africa selling sniper rifles to Azerbaijan? In an article published on the website politicsweb.co.za, it was noted that the Minister of Defense of the formed the opposition of the "shadow government" of the South Africa David Maynier has turned to National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) Chairperson, Jeff Radebe.

Report of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) reveals a number of highly questionable conventional arms sales in Azerbaijan.

“The NCACC must, according to legislation regulating conventional arms sales, "...avoid transfers of conventional arms that are likely to contribute to the escalation of regional military conflicts, endanger peace by introducing destabilizing military capabilities into a region or otherwise contribute to regional instability," Maynier noted.

As noted in the article However, the 2012 National Conventional Arms Control Committee Second Quarterly Report reveals the sale of 40 sniper rifles, worth R3 800 000, and 30 000 rounds of ammunition, worth R11 880 000, to Azerbaijan.

According to Maynier thus SAR contributes to the exacerbation of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and destabilization in the region. “We contribute to regional instability by selling conventional arms to both Azerbaijan and Armenia,” he stated.

The article written by Joshua Kucera, published on the website of the American organization “Eurasianet” states that military-technical cooperation between South Africa and Azerbaijan is not a secret. It is noted that a few years ago Azerbaijan purchased SAR BMP, and later began producing them.

In addition, during the recently held International Defense Industry Exhibition ADEX 2014 in Baku South African company Paramount Group signed an agreement with the Azerbaijani Air Tech Services Corporation on the establishing Paramount Aerospace Azerbaijan, which will deal with the modernization of helicopters and some models of aircraft, the publication reads.