WHAT DID THE PARADE DEMONSTRATE?

On 26 June, Azerbaijan marked the 90th anniversary of its armed forces. A military parade was held on Freedom Square in Baku for the first time in 16 years. The parade was mounted by 4,510 servicemen, 210 units of modernized armoured hardware, 19 helicopters, 25 planes and 31 ships and cutters. This was the third, but the grandest, parade in the history of the Azerbaijani armed forces. The first military parade was held on 28 May 1919 - one year after the establishment of the army corps of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. The next parade was held in the second year of independence of modern Azerbaijan - 9 October 1992 - when the country had no well-established regular army under single command. Sixteen years have passed since then. Now that the Azerbaijani armed forces have been turned into a powerful army, capable of defending its country, Azerbaijan's leadership had every reason to display the work that had been done. The parade was reviewed by the Azerbaijani President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Ilham Aliyev.

"I am very glad that today the Azerbaijani army meets the highest standards. As you know, I often visit military units and front-line regions and meet soldiers standing on the contact line with the enemy. While meeting officers and soldiers on the territories of Tartar, Agdam and Fuzuli, in the front-line zone, in Naxcivan and other border regions, I saw for myself once again that the Azerbaijani army is at a very high level. Its fighting spirit is becoming stronger, its professionalism is developing rapidly and it is adopting modern standards. Of course, we note this with a feeling of great pride," the Supreme Commander-in-Chief said while opening the parade. 

The president has something to be proud of and the military parade provided graphic evidence. Today the state of preparedness and equipment of the national army is so high that Armenia, which occupies 20 per cent of Azerbaijani territory, can no longer conceal its concern. A year ago, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian armed forces and current defence minister, Mikhail Arutyunyan, said that "Azerbaijan has 1.5-2 times more tanks and infantry fighting vehicles and 2-2.5 times more artillery systems and so on than it is allowed to have under the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty" (Golos Armenii newspaper, 8 February 2007). At the same time, Arutyunyan probably forgot to add that a modern and powerful military-industrial complex has been created in Azerbaijan in recent years. It is no accident that, ahead of the military parade, the President of Azerbaijan visited the Alov factory, of the Ministry of Defence Industry, which manufactures optical devices. The head of state expressed satisfaction with the creation of the defence industry and stressed that work in this direction will continue. "For the time being, we buy most of our weapons, munitions, military hardware and war planes abroad. This process is continuing and our cooperation with friendly countries is becoming stronger in this sphere. But we want to ensure that Azerbaijan itself manufactures as much military hardware, weapons and ammunition as possible," Aliyev said, adding that today the republic has every possibility of achieving this goal. In this context, the country's financial position plays a major role. Azerbaijan's annual military spending occupies first place in the structure of budget expenditure. But this is in the nature of things for a country 20 per cent of whose territory is under occupation. According to the president, over the last five years Azerbaijan's military spending has increased by more than 10 times and has reached $2 billion. This is the same amount as the whole state budget of neighbouring Armenia in 2008. At the same time, Azerbaijan is not simply increasing spending in the military sector. The country is implementing large-scale development projects in almost all spheres. This nullifies the arguments of those who take military expenditure out of context and try to present Azerbaijan as a militaristic country.

You do not have to be a great analyst to recognise the principle "if you want peace, prepare for war" in Baku's policy. This policy certainly strengthens its positions in negotiations towards a settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. "Negotiations have been conducted for many years and the Azerbaijani people are already tired of them. We believe that the negotiations cannot continue forever. However, there is progress in the negotiating process. In the proposals being discussed today, the principle of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity is taken as a basis. The proposals currently on the negotiating table do not contain any mechanism for Nagornyy Karabakh's secession from Azerbaijan," said the country's president. 

He has repeatedly noted a possible military solution to the conflict and, addressing the parade, he hinted once again that the Azerbaijani people are tired of endless and unproductive talks. Incidentally, this hint was heard once again by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, who also witnessed Azerbaijan's growing military power. Whether by accident or their design, the co-chairs' visit to the region coincided with the military parade in Baku. This magnificent demonstration probably made a big impression on the co-chairs, and they shared it with Yerevan. But that's not the main point. Azerbaijan did not aim to "flex its muscles" and the parade was just a grand festive ceremony, aimed at reporting to the people the reforms in the military sphere. At the same time it demonstrated once again that, along with economic and geopolitical advantages, the military factor in the great political game in the region also stands in Azerbaijan's favour.