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The Institute for Military Studies Khazar (Caspian Defense Studies Institute) has published a report about the losses in the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan and the situation of the human rights in the army in the first three months of 2015. According to the report, the losses of Azerbaijan in the area of defense and security have grown in the indicated period making 19 people. Besides, it is stated in the report that the Ministry of Defense forces some media to remove the information about unconfirmed losses from their websites, Azerbaijani online recourse Meydan TV reports.

According to the article, based on the monitoring of the Azerbaijani media, NGOs and the publications of law enforcement agencies of Azerbaijan for January-March 2015, the Institute concluded that Azerbaijan has had 19 losses in the field of defense and security during that period, 12 of which are combat losses (11 servicemen died at the frontline, 1 as a result of mine explosion; meanwhile Zakir Hasanov, the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, recently reported only 8 combat losses since the beginning of the year), 7 refer to non-combat losses, including one misadventure, 4 cases of non-statutory actions, one case of careless use of firearms, one death caused by illness. All of them were servicemen of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan.

As for the servicemen who had been injured and got various mutilations, it is stated in the report that their number is 5, three of whom had been injured at the frontline, one as a result of mine explosion, and one as a result of non-statutory actions. All of them are also servicemen of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan.

According to the article, the investigation revealed that the combat losses of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan have increased compared with the same period of 2014. The same refers to the non-combat losses. The number of the losses of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan for the first three months of 2014 is presented in the report to compare: 16 servicemen.

According to the report, the combat losses are caused by the increased escalation on the line of contact of the troops, and the reason of non-combat losses is in the worsening problems in the Azerbaijani army servicemen’s statutory relations.

It is also highlighted that it is impossible to state the real number of the losses in the Azerbaijani army today because they are being hidden more frequently than they used to in the past years. The authors of the report claim that by closing the information field the Ministry of Defense of the country attempts to neutralize the possible resistance of the population beforehand, hide the problems in the army even with the defense spending upping, and to promote the propaganda thesis of “being ready for war.”

“We are not at all talking about military secret. We are talking about the simply and naturally informing the public, as its complete lack has resulted in a hunger for information in the society,” the report reads.

To conclude, the report states that the military expenditures make up approximately 20% of the state budget of Azerbaijan; hence, the Ministry of Defense of the country gives an account to the society. However, the reality is different from that: the military department of the country is just engaged in hiding losses, lawlessness and serious problems in the armed forces. Moreover, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan has gone so far as to force the online media to remove the publications about the losses in the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, which are based on its own sources.

Azerbaijani state information agency AzerTAc recently reported an unconfirmed loss in the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. The news was rewritten by several pro-governmental media, however, the next day in the evening the publications regarding this topic were removed from the news outlets loyal to the authorities. Earlier, Azerbaijani news outlet Moderator.az, citing its own sources, reported that a soldier from one of the military units in Jalilabad district, Yusifov Semerhan Etibar oglu, had been killed by his fellow soldier. The press office of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan did not comment on the information, and the publication was removed from the website on the following day.

A similar case was detected by the specialists on March, 26 when it was known from the Azerbaijani non-official open sources that a contract serviceman, Kazimov Etibar Khudavi oglu, was killed on the line of contact of the troops. The information was posted on the website of the opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat on March 26; however, it was removed a little later, again being saved only in the Google search engine database. On the next day, on March 27, the press office of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan was obliged to admit the fact of the military loss only after the information was widely spread in the social media.

The Armenian side, in its turn, is obliged to consult alternative sources more frequently in order to find out the real number of the losses in the Azerbaijani army. At the beginning of March, Armenian media outlet Times.am informed about three Azerbaijani servicemen who had been killed on the frontline: private soldiers Zamin Aminov and Alekper Abbasov, and lieutenant Shalal Hasanov.

Besides, the Armenian side has earlier revealed two more unconfirmed losses in the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. According to the Armenian military-analytical outlet Razm.info, it was known from the Azerbaijani non-official sources that an Azerbaijani serviceman, Mirzayev Mehdi Nabi oglu, 19, had been shot dead by a sniper from the Armenian side on March 1. The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan did not comment on the information. The outlet claimed that the military department of Azerbaijan hid one more loss: according to Azerbaijani non-official sources, Pashayev Huseyn Mammad oglu had shot at his fellow soldier Huseynov Razi Ilgar oglu from service weapon in a military unit in Gazakh district on March 1. The latter died from the injury in the head.

Remarkably, Azerbaijani media outlet Meydan TV posted three killed Azerbaijani servicemen’s photos on March 2: the names of two of them coincided with those informed by Razm.info.

Note also that since early 2015 the Azerbaijani government agencies acknowledged the death of 13 servicemen: according to official information, 9 of them were combat deaths on the frontline.

Related:

Razm.info: Azerbaijani pro-government media first wrote then removed news about unconfirmed loss in army