Aliyev’s avid compensation and Azerbaijanis’ silence for a few penny
Certainly, human life, moreover the life of a soldier serving for his homeland is priceless but depending on how much compensation is given to the families of deceased soldiers shows the attitude of the state about how much you appreciate your soldier’s life depending on the state budget affordability. The Azerbaijani side, as always so as during the four-day war, tried to carefully conceal the true losses and the big number of casualties.
When we asked Taron Hovhannisyan, a Turkologist, expert on Azerbaijani studies and expert for razm.info website, how it is possible to conceal so many casualties and whether the deceased soldiers’ relatives and parents do not complain and raise this question, he said that the Azerbaijanis are very careful in giving out information and fear to tell their casualties, “There are soldiers from special squads among the casualties. Their relatives are also well-prepared. They also have something to lose, there is an issue of pensions, there is a question of money paid by the state, therefore, they are silent when they lose their relative.”
To our curiosity of whether a very high compensation is paid in Azerbaijan for the dead soldier that they do not raise the question of their missing relative, Taron Hovhannisyan replied, “The amount of life insurance of an Azerbaijani serviceman paid to his family after his death is a lump-sum allowance of 11 thousand manats (the currency of Azerbaijan) defined since August 2013. The same amount in dollar exchange rate from February to December 2015 amounted to 10-11 thousand US dollars. While as of December 2015, after the devaluation of the manat, the 11 thousand manats by the exchange rate as of July 2016 amounted to 7 thousand US dollars, more specifically to USD 7100.”
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Although Azerbaijan’s budget is incomparable with the budget of Armenia, nevertheless, the allowance given to the families of a deceased soldier in our country is bigger. After the four-day war, Artem Asatryan – Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, said that around 4 million drams are given to the families of the deceased soldier. It is more than 8 thousand US dollars. The lump-sum insurance amount paid to the families of the fallen soldier amounts to 2 million drams, 1 million 400 thousand drams is provided for the funeral service and another 700 thousand drams for the improvement of graves. The pensions are assigned by monthly rate driven by whether the serviceman is an officer or private. There is also an institute of bonus, which in addition to pensions, is allocated to the whole and individual members of the families by individual rates, which are differentiated for children and other members of the family. As mentioned by Taron Hovhannisyan, at times this amount is urged to be raised in Azerbaijan but no decision has been made yet, “In January 2016, the President of Azerbaijan signed a decree to raise the pension allocated to the servicemen by 10 percent but the law has not yet entered into force, it has been discussed in the Azerbaijani parliament for several times. In any case, raising this amount even by 10 percent, connected with the decline of purchasing power of the manat, this amount in dollar equivalent would be 1.5 times less from the size defined in 2013.” The pension for a soldier in Azerbaijan who has become a disabled of the first group during the performance of his military duties amounts to 80% of the lump sum (11 thousand manats) as prescribed by the law, which is 8800 AZN. The 2nd group disabled – 60 percent (6600 AZN) and the 3rd group – 40 percent (4400 manats). The money is allocated in 3 years period.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
