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KARABAKH ARMENIANS REPORT FURTHER MILITARY BUILDUP
Lusine Musayelian
http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24295400.html
12.08.2011
Nagorno-Karabakh - A military parade in Stepanakert.
Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian-backed armed forces have acquired
significant amounts of new weapons this year and will continue the
military buildup in the months to come, their commander-in-chief
announced on Friday.
Lieutenant-General Movses Hakobian said the "military potential"
of his troops grew by 20 percent in the first half of 2011.
"During this period, the qualitative and quantitative state of our
weapons and military hardware changed quite a lot," Hakobian told a
news conference in Stepanakert. "Quite serious reforms were carried
out with the restructuring of two army brigades.
"We re-armed one artillery regiment with new systems. The anti-tank
and air-defense means of a dozen battalions have been enhanced."
"And this year we will receive more tanks -- two more divisions --
and some of the weaponry of the army's air-defense system will be
replaced," he said.
Hakobian, who commanded some Karabakh Armenian units during the
1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan, gave no other details of the buildup.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Lieutenant General Movses Hakobian, commander of
the Karabakh Armenian army.
Armenia, whose armed forces are closely connected with the Karabakh
military, is likely to be the main source of the arms acquisitions
reported by him.
Its Karabakh-born Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian said last February
that Yerevan obtained "unprecedented" quantities of modern weaponry in
2010. "The expansion of our military capacity will continue in 2011,
and it will be no less large-scale than it was in 2010," Ohanian told
RFE/RL's Armenian service.
Azerbaijan's leaders regularly threaten to forcibly win back Karabakh
and Armenian-controlled territories surrounding the disputed enclave
if the long-running Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks yield no results
acceptable to Baku. The Azerbaijani government plans to boost military
spending to $3.3 billion this year, up from $2.15 a year ago and just
$160 million in 2003.
Echoing earlier statements military officials in Stepanakert and
Yerevan, Hakobian insisted that the Armenian side is undaunted by
the Azerbaijani military buildup. He said the Azerbaijani army will
suffer another defeat if it attempts to end the conflict by force.
Still, the Karabakh general did not rule out the possibility of renewed
war. "In my view, if Azerbaijan thinks that it can solve the Artsakh
(Karabakh) problem by military means, the resumption of hostilities
will be possible," he said.
Hakobian noted in that context that instances of Azerbaijani troops
opening small arms fire on Karabakh Armenian positions have increased
drastically this year. He also spoke of their growing recourse to
rocket-propelled grenades.
"They fired at us from grenade launchers twice last year and ten
times already this year," he said.
Hakobian said last December that the Karabakh military has
strengthened its defense fortifications along the entire "line of
contact" with Azerbaijani forces lying east and north of the disputed
territory. Ohanian likewise stated last year that those positions
have been beefed up significantly.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Karabakh Armenian troops hold exercises,
undated The Karabakh military chief was also asked to comment on the
increasingly publicized problem of non-combat deaths among soldiers.
The Karabakh army was rocked last year by two separate shooting sprees
that left ten servicemen dead.
In one of those incidents, a soldier gunned down four fellow conscripts
and wounded three others in a dispute over music player earphones. He
was sentenced to life imprisonment last week.
"Right now we have around 5,000 soldiers [on simultaneous frontline
duty] with weapons and live ammunition in their hands and the right
to open fire at will," said Hakobian. "Due to a flawed psychological
preparation and negative social phenomena penetrating the army,
young soldiers commit crimes in some situations."
Hakobian said the local military has stepped up the crackdown on army
crime and already managed to reduce it. Two soldiers have committed
suicide and two others have been murdered in their army units so far
this year, he said, adding that all of those cases have already been
solved by military investigators.
In Hakobian's words, criminal charges are currently pending against
244 Karabakh military personnel, including about 50 officers.
From: Baghdasarian
Lusine Musayelian
http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24295400.html
12.08.2011
Nagorno-Karabakh - A military parade in Stepanakert.
Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian-backed armed forces have acquired
significant amounts of new weapons this year and will continue the
military buildup in the months to come, their commander-in-chief
announced on Friday.
Lieutenant-General Movses Hakobian said the "military potential"
of his troops grew by 20 percent in the first half of 2011.
"During this period, the qualitative and quantitative state of our
weapons and military hardware changed quite a lot," Hakobian told a
news conference in Stepanakert. "Quite serious reforms were carried
out with the restructuring of two army brigades.
"We re-armed one artillery regiment with new systems. The anti-tank
and air-defense means of a dozen battalions have been enhanced."
"And this year we will receive more tanks -- two more divisions --
and some of the weaponry of the army's air-defense system will be
replaced," he said.
Hakobian, who commanded some Karabakh Armenian units during the
1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan, gave no other details of the buildup.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Lieutenant General Movses Hakobian, commander of
the Karabakh Armenian army.
Armenia, whose armed forces are closely connected with the Karabakh
military, is likely to be the main source of the arms acquisitions
reported by him.
Its Karabakh-born Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian said last February
that Yerevan obtained "unprecedented" quantities of modern weaponry in
2010. "The expansion of our military capacity will continue in 2011,
and it will be no less large-scale than it was in 2010," Ohanian told
RFE/RL's Armenian service.
Azerbaijan's leaders regularly threaten to forcibly win back Karabakh
and Armenian-controlled territories surrounding the disputed enclave
if the long-running Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks yield no results
acceptable to Baku. The Azerbaijani government plans to boost military
spending to $3.3 billion this year, up from $2.15 a year ago and just
$160 million in 2003.
Echoing earlier statements military officials in Stepanakert and
Yerevan, Hakobian insisted that the Armenian side is undaunted by
the Azerbaijani military buildup. He said the Azerbaijani army will
suffer another defeat if it attempts to end the conflict by force.
Still, the Karabakh general did not rule out the possibility of renewed
war. "In my view, if Azerbaijan thinks that it can solve the Artsakh
(Karabakh) problem by military means, the resumption of hostilities
will be possible," he said.
Hakobian noted in that context that instances of Azerbaijani troops
opening small arms fire on Karabakh Armenian positions have increased
drastically this year. He also spoke of their growing recourse to
rocket-propelled grenades.
"They fired at us from grenade launchers twice last year and ten
times already this year," he said.
Hakobian said last December that the Karabakh military has
strengthened its defense fortifications along the entire "line of
contact" with Azerbaijani forces lying east and north of the disputed
territory. Ohanian likewise stated last year that those positions
have been beefed up significantly.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Karabakh Armenian troops hold exercises,
undated The Karabakh military chief was also asked to comment on the
increasingly publicized problem of non-combat deaths among soldiers.
The Karabakh army was rocked last year by two separate shooting sprees
that left ten servicemen dead.
In one of those incidents, a soldier gunned down four fellow conscripts
and wounded three others in a dispute over music player earphones. He
was sentenced to life imprisonment last week.
"Right now we have around 5,000 soldiers [on simultaneous frontline
duty] with weapons and live ammunition in their hands and the right
to open fire at will," said Hakobian. "Due to a flawed psychological
preparation and negative social phenomena penetrating the army,
young soldiers commit crimes in some situations."
Hakobian said the local military has stepped up the crackdown on army
crime and already managed to reduce it. Two soldiers have committed
suicide and two others have been murdered in their army units so far
this year, he said, adding that all of those cases have already been
solved by military investigators.
In Hakobian's words, criminal charges are currently pending against
244 Karabakh military personnel, including about 50 officers.
From: Baghdasarian