At the session of the Council of Ministers, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that in 2014 Armenia had employed a Karabakh conflict imitation tactics, and that Azerbaijani defense budget for 2015 is twice the size of the entire budget of Armenia.
In this regard, Aravot.am talked to the expert for Razm.info military analytical website Vram Khojagoryan. He mentioned that in his opinion Aliyev has made these statements to meet the needs of the domestic audience. “Everybody knows that the year of 2014 was unprecedented with its tension in the front line, and it is the indicative of downing of the Armenian helicopter and the August unprecedented intensity, however, it should be noted that as usual, in terms of the balance of losses and moral-psychological matter, Armenia has always been a winner. If we follow the opinions expressed by the users of the Azerbaijani social networks, it is evident that it has been quite unexpected to hear from the state officials for years in a raw that Azerbaijan has a considerable big military budget, that just in few days it is ready to bring Karabakh back, and when the true time of confrontation comes, Azerbaijan bears such heavy losses.”
Referring to the military budget, Mr. Khojagoryan said that over the years, the leadership of Azerbaijan, both at the level of the President and Defense Minister, announce that Azerbaijani military budget exceeds the budget of Armenia by several times. He believes that it is necessary to compare the two countries’ military expenditures. “If we look at the numbers, it turns out that Azerbaijan has planned 4.2 billion dollars for defense structures in 2015, but it is important to note that only 1.6 billion out of this 4.2 billion goes to the Defense Ministry, in other words, if it is mentioned that 4.2 billion is allocated to the defense needs, it assumes the budget of all departments together.” Vram Khojagoryan emphasized that Armenia has planned 199 billion drams for its military expenditures in 2015, which is approximately 423 million dollars. He believes that Ilham Aliyev has made a statement on emotional grounds. “Comparing the expenditures of the army, indeed, Azerbaijani military budget exceeds about three times, but in any case, to say that the Azerbaijani budget prevails the entire budget of Armenia several times, it’s just a statement made on emotional grounds.”
The expert mentioned that at present a situation is created that Azerbaijan has something to demand from Armenia and preservation of calmness in the line of contact does not incur from the interests of Azerbaijan, but from the interests of Armenia. “Both, firestorm of border villages of Tavush Marz and the continuous evident attempts of subversive penetration in 2014 are a clear policy line, which are aimed at creating tension around the Karabakh conflict, as long as the occupation armed forces (in quotation marks) are not removed from Azerbaijani lands (in quotation marks).”
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Ami CHICHAKYAN
