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Some veterans of Karabakh war receive financial support, free medical treatment, cars, apartments and government praise in Azerbaijan. That’s because president Aliyev himself did not serve in the war. Apart from Defense Minister Safar Abiyev, no veteran sits in Azerbaijan’s cabinet of ministers, the EurasiaNet says in an article.

As the article reads, the cash-rich Azerbaijan appears policy-poor when it comes to the thousands of veterans who fought in its 1988-1994 conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh. Some veterans receive financial support, free medical treatment, cars, apartments and government praise. Other veterans, though, claim that they receive nothing. The government, for its part, remains mostly silent. The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, which handles veteran policy, declined to speak with EurasiaNet.org about provisions for Karabakh veterans.

That silence, in part, reflects Azerbaijani society’s own ambivalence toward the 11,500 registered veterans of the Karabakh war, a conflict that ended disastrously for Azerbaijan.

“Unlike veterans in Armenia, Azerbaijani veterans do not command political influence or hold a particularly revered status,” charged Karabakh veteran Azad Isazade, director of the Institute for Military-Strategic Research said.

“Some people, of course, show respect,” said Isazade. “But there are also those who say ‘Did you need [to go to war] ? Didn’t you know that the politicians had sold Karabakh [to Armenia]?’” he says.

Reserve Army Colonel Uzeir Jafarov agreed, “The treatment is more indifferent than respectful.”

The authors of the article note that for unclear reasons, the government last May scrapped monthly pension payments to all but disabled veterans. Those veterans still receive a monthly pension of between 140 to 273 manats (roughly $178.48 to $348.
“That lack of a systematic policy means that benefits are distributed selectively, which creates inequality, favoritism and, likely, an element of corruption,” Isazade said.

The Union’s deputy chairperson, Reserve Col. Jafarov, charged that the overall approach to veteran benefits is “wrong” and entirely “politicized.” While “veteran organizations which praise the government” receive benefits ranging from free houses to free cars, “those who are critical of the government, including myself, receive nothing,” he claimed.

One 38-eight-year-old veteran, who gave his name as Yusif, claims that a designated medical facility in Baku has denied him free medical treatment. Problems with the affirmative-action program for government jobs also persist. Disabled veteran Fakhraddin Safarov, a teacher by background and a board member of the hard-line Karabakh Liberation Organization, alleged that the Ministry of Education had accepted none of his job applications since his army discharge in 1994.

According to the article not all veterans of the Karabakh war carry identity cards. Some, citing alleged bureaucratic hassles or demands for bribes, say that they never registered.

According to Isazade high-ranking officials do not understand veterans’ problems because they don’t know what it is to be a veteran
“President Aliyev himself did not serve in the war. Apart from Defense Minister Safar Abiyev, no veteran sits in Azerbaijan’s cabinet of ministers, and few exist among deputy ministers and other senior officials. The 125-member parliament contains only one veteran,” the article said.