Zaur Nasirli: Hazing rules Azerbaijani army; morale and training condition of soldiers is on the rocks
"At first, I'd like to dispel the myth that having a military budget of $3.7 billion, we will surely crush Armenia, the military budget of which is only $ 412 million," writes journalist Zaur Nasirli in the article titled "Myths and Realities of the Azerbaijani Army," published in Azerbaijani portal "Factheber."
The author notes that the military expenditures of Azerbaijan are 7 times larger than the military budget of Armenia, "but, unfortunately, it means nothing." As an example, the author brings Turkey the military budget of which is about 11.2 billion dollars, and Saudi Arabia, the military expenditures of which is $ 60 billion. "Nevertheless, the armies of these countries are not comparable. Turkey several times excels Saudi army in all respects – in professionalism, weapons, military trainings, etc." Nasirli says.
The article also says that the U.S. military budget is 633 billion dollars, which is more than the entire state budget of Russia and is 7 times greater than its military budget. However, the Russian army is not inferior to the U.S. Army. At the same time Russia is one of the world's leading weapon exporters.
"Thus how reasonable it is to speak with such certainty about the inevitable victory over Armenia? The pledge of strong army is not money, but the professionalism, fighting efficiency, high quality trainings of the soldiers and their fighting spirit. One would not say the same about our army, where still hazing reigns, and the morale of soldiers and their level of military training is almost on the rocks. Everyone tries to avoid passing military service by all means because of the horrific conditions existing in the army," says the article.
The author notes that the Azerbaijani soldiers swear after giving their service that the concept of "fight for their country," is not worth a damn for them.
"With such a spirit of soldiers, it is very difficult to talk about any specific victories. Unfortunately, the government does not give much importance to the army. It practically does not fight tyranny and commanding voluntarism. The government is just trying to present everything in pink colors, showing off its 3-billion-dollar budget, most of which is spent for other purposes. To solve such a big problem the authorities need to fully replace the commanding staff of the army, because solving the problems with the current army commanders is the same as gathering alcoholics and fighting the alcoholism by their help," Nasirli sums up.