The Defence Ministry in Baku has issued a statement talking up Azerbaijan's military capacity and accusing the Armenians of running scared.
It is the latest in a tit-for-tat exchange of comments which began with a meeting at the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry, chaired by President Aliyev.
'The well-grounded statements made by Mr President, Supreme Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev at the meeting of the Defence Ministry on 23 April, Minister Safar Abiyev’s report to the head of state that the army is ready to fight and other statements prompted a wide response not only in the region, but also in the whole world,' Defence Ministry spokesman Lt-Col Eldar Sabiroglu said in the statement issued today.
He described the meeting last Friday as very significant.
'No doubt the results of the meeting will be seen. If Azerbaijan starts to liberate the occupied lands, Armenia will inevitably be defeated. The provision of our army with modern weapons, military vehicles, the combat spirit of our soldiers, the unanimity of the president and people create great opportunities for it. The question may arise: why is the process being delayed?
'The work done, Azerbaijan’s efforts for the resolution of the conflict give grounds to say that there is no need to seek a secret reason for this. The only factor is that our country hoped the activity of the Minsk Group and other international institutions towards the peaceful solution to the conflict would produce results. Azerbaijan did not want bloodshed in the region again. This was the essence of Mr President’s speech at the meeting. But as has been seen, Armenia and some known forces impede the realization of our peaceful policy. Is there any other way in the present circumstances? Of course, not,' he said.
The Armenian Defence Ministry said after the 23 April meeting that its army was more combat-ready than ever. Eldar Sabiroglu dismissed their response and indirectly accused Armenia of hiding under Russian protection.
'If the ministry of the enemy country, which was trying to remind us with its statement, could refresh its rusty memory and see the truth without dirty tricks, it would realize who, i.e. which country, "presented" Azerbaijani land to Armenia during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war. It seems we need to repeat it. Armenia is not brave enough to wage war alone. It is encouraged by the forces in whose shadow it takes refuge.
'We are probably making ourselves clear. Otherwise [Armenian Defence Minister] Seyran Ohanyan, who is the killer of children, and others like him, could not boast of "heroism". The world knows about the troubles of whales at the bottom of the ocean, but closes its eyes to the Armenian disease…'
'The supreme commander-in-chief said the Azerbaijani land had been occupied for long years with no basis in international law and our cultural, religious and historic monuments had been destroyed in all the occupied lands, our mosques ruined and historic exhibits stolen from our museums by Armenian vandals.
'The president said we could not endure such cruelty and injustice. We must ensure that we can liberate our land by force at any time. If we look at the history of war, we can see one truth. There are occasional cases in history when a country at war has fired on the holy site of another country and looted everything in its path. One of these few dreadful cases is the Armenian vandalism that we faced at the end of the 20th and start of the 21st century.'
Sabiroglu said the Armenian Defence Ministry’s statement showed that the Armenians were afraid.
'Therefore they try to protect themselves by making stupid and false ideas statements, their domestic situation is bad. I would like to finish by quoting the chief of the Armenian General Staff, Yuriy Khachaturov, as reported by News Armenia several days ago. He said: “If almost an equal number of recruits were called in 2004-2009, thanks to which we were able to maintain the proper level of staffing, from 2010 to 2016 we will have problems and the number of conscripts will decrease." We have not changed a word. But Khachaturov seems to have stepped back from the problem. Last year the Armenian Defence Ministry could not staff several military units because of a lack of conscripts. I think there is no need for comment.'
APA
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