Azerbaijan is preparing for military action with high intensity, former head of the Military-Industrial Committee Avetik Kerobyan stated.
According to him, at the end of last year, the Azerbaijani authorities announced their intention to cut the military budget by 0.5 billion manats, but already in the spring, Azerbaijan purchased 40 JF-17 multirole fighters. Such a number of fighters will allow the Azerbaijani side to “strangle” the air defense not only of Armenia but also of northern Iran. “In other words, we see that Azerbaijan is intensively preparing for war, and this concerns not only Armenia but also Iran. This must be taken very seriously. Nevertheless, Armenia demonstrates total unpreparedness for such a development of events,” he believes.
Kerobyan reminded that since last autumn, the authorities have declared their intention to implement a comprehensive defense and security system, but no steps in this direction have been taken. “I would even say that everything is being done exactly the opposite. Instead of measures aimed at ensuring societal unity, new dividing lines are being introduced, and we see massive attacks on the church and national values,” he said. Moreover, the authorities have introduced new procedures that have institutionalized slowness and inaction within the military-industrial sector.
Last week saw the first reduction of the military-industrial budget. Expenditures on defense-related research and experimental design work amounted to 0 drams, and it is already clear that no funds will be spent in this area this year. All of this is the result of adopted “pseudo-legal” justifications for slowness and inaction. He is confident that soon all companies in the sector will insist on contract terminations due to budget cuts.
“The current government has underperformed the military-industrial development budget for five years—not by 5–10%, but by 30–40%, and in the last two years by 60–70%. Funds are provided for certain volumes of serial production, but this is insufficient for development and for bridging the technological gap that exists today between us and our opponents,” he stated.