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“Azerbaijan has no right to acquire 500km range ballistic missiles and if the commander of Azerbaijani missile troops and artillery isn’t aware, we should remind him about the Missile Technology Control Regime which implies that any member state shouldn’t have missiles of more than 300km range or provide other countries with such. This is the reason Armenia has ballistic missiles of only 280-300km range,” political scientist, Sergey Minasyan told Panorama.am commenting on commander of the Azerbaijani missile troops and artillery, major-general Zahid Huseynov’s announcement.

It should be noted that Zahid Huseynov said that Azerbaijan is working towards acquiring 500-km range ballistic missiles.
“Our current armament allows striking all the military objects in the lands occupied by Armenians. If the Supreme Commander orders, we can also hit Yerevan,” Huseynov said.

According to the political scientist, no country will provide Azerbaijan with such missiles, yet it is possible to acquire from a country like North Korea.

“From this point of view, Baku will face serious problems. Moreover, when the question of what significance acquiring and applying these missiles against Armenia might have, remains unanswered. Unlike the territory of NKR, these operations on the Armenian territory imply the application of all the tools of Russian and CSTO allies,” he noted.

As far as it concerns Armenia, Minasyan noted that it possesses a serious missile arsenal.  
“Since the 90s Armenia has several types of ballistic missiles called the NATO Scud. Besides, the Armenian leadership announced that Armenia already possesses contemporary tools, which are more accurate than the Scud,” Minasyan noted.

He also said that Azerbaijan will face serious political problems if applying these missiles against Armenia, let alone against Yerevan, especially if these operations are carried out from the Autonomous Republic of Nakijevan.

Concerning Turkey providing Azerbaijan with missiles acquired from China, Minasyan said that regardless of Turkish-Chinese cooperation in this sphere, providing Azerbaijan with these missiles will have serious consequences.

“Turkey remains a NATO member state and if the reaction of Brussels on providing [Azerbaijan] with medium range ballistic missiles was mild, in case of extended range missiles, the reaction will be painful. Besides, the relationship between CSTO and NATO remains the core of Turkish—Armenian relationship, which is also fraught with complications,” he said.