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Sleeping with Our Enemy: Russia Sells Weapons to Azerbaijan

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  • Sleeping with Our Enemy: Russia Sells Weapons to Azerbaijan

    Sleeping with Our Enemy: Russia Sells Weapons to Azerbaijan

    HETQ Armenia: Investigative Journalists
    13:08, February 21, 2015
    By David Boyajian


    Russia has sold some $4 billion worth of modern weapons to Azerbaijan
    in the past few years, with perhaps more to come.
    These include S-300 air defense missiles, Mi-35Mcombat helicopters,
    T-90 tanks, Kornetanti-tank missiles, MSTA-S 152mm self-propelled
    artillery, and the highly destructive Smerch Multiple Launch Rocket
    System.


    Since Azerbaijan's 1994 defeat in the Karabagh/Artsakh war, its
    leaders have declared their intention to seize Artsakh by force.
    Azeris regularly shoot across, and try to penetrate, Artsakh's
    ceasefire line. They have made territorial claims on Armenia and are
    even shelling villages in Armenia itself.

    Armenia and Russia are allies and have a mutual defense pact. Russian
    troops help guard Armenia's border with Turkey. Armenia is Russia's
    only ally in the Caucasus. Why then is Russia supplying sophisticated
    weapons to a country that is not just Armenians' enemy but also
    hostile to Russian interests?

    Selling to the Enemy

    Arms sales generate immediate profit for Russia plus continuing income
    from spare parts and future upgrades. The Russian military may also
    reason that it knows best how to counter its own weapons should it go
    to war with Azerbaijan. Perhaps Russia is embedding secret hardware
    and software vulnerabilities into Azeri weapons to disable them should
    the need arise.

    Russia argues that if it won't sell weapons to Azerbaijan, other
    countries will. Yet Baku has bought arms elsewhere; $1.6 billion worth
    from Israel, including Hermes drones and Spike anti-tank missiles, and
    significant amounts from Belarus, Turkey, and Ukraine.

    By having Azerbaijan partly dependent on Russian weaponry, Moscow
    presumes it is co-opting Azeris and making them less likely to join
    NATO and supply gas and oil to the West. Are Azeris really that
    gullible? Baku could just be buying time until, with Turkey and NATO;
    it can strike back at Russia's vulnerable underbelly.

    Is Russia selling arms to Azerbaijan because it is unhappy that
    Armenia has cordial relations with the U.S., EU, and NATO? Probably
    not. Russia has always found less drastic ways to express its
    displeasure, such as increasing its natural gas prices.

    But Armenians need not worry, says Russia, because it sells defensive
    weapons to Yerevan, reportedly at reduced prices, which neutralize the
    offensive ones that Baku buys.

    Though Armenians currently hold the military advantage in Artsakh, can
    defensive weapons really match Azerbaijan's offensive ones? And can
    Armenia, whose economy is only 13 to 20% of Azerbaijan's, afford them?
    Yerevan may be paying not in cash but rather in factories,
    infrastructure, real estate, minerals, and debt. That increases
    Russian's already considerable control over Armenia. And notice that
    Russia profits from selling weapons to both sides.

    Russian Betrayals

    Russia does not, of course, want Azerbaijan (or Turkey) to overrun
    Armenia. That would create a pan-Turkic corridor from Turkey to
    Azerbaijan. The U.S. and NATO would use it to dominate the Caucasus,
    Caspian Sea, and probably Turkic Central Asia.

    Artsakh is a different matter. It has no military agreements with
    Russia. Indeed, Moscow might not care if Azerbaijan overran Artsakh
    since that by itself would not create a pan-Turkic corridor.

    Russia might even want a new Artsakh war if it crippled Azerbaijan's
    energy infrastructure and destroyed its gas and oil pipelines that lie
    just north of Artsakh's borders. Or, depending on what Baku gives
    Moscow in return, Russia could even help Azerbaijan defeat Artsakh.

    After all, post-WW I, Soviet Russia gave Artsakh and Nakhichevan to
    Azerbaijan, handed Armenian territory to Turkey, and delivered weapons
    to Turkish forces under Kemal Ataturk.

    Turkey later turned against Russia and eventually joined NATO, while
    Azeris remained hostile to Moscow. Azeris and Turks outsmarted the
    Russians.

    Some Armenians say that Jewish Bolsheviks, unlike the Russian Orthodox
    nationalists who allegedly control Russia now, were mainly responsible
    for those disasters.

    Nevertheless, arms sales to Azerbaijan and Moscow's massive trade and
    natural gas deals with Turkey remind Armenians of past Russian
    betrayals.

    Armenia and Artsakh's Security

    To hedge against more Russian betrayals, and for economic, scientific,
    educational, and religious-cultural reasons, Armenia understandably
    maintains friendly relations with the U.S. and Europe.

    Armenia cannot, however, look to the U.S. and NATO for military
    security. The latter regard Turkey as not only weightier than Armenia,
    but also as the horse on which to gallop into the Caucasus, Caspian,
    and beyond. Therefore, Armenia allies itself with Russia. Without
    Armenia, of course, Russia will lose the Caucasus and much more to
    NATO.

    As Moscow aspires to someday be the leader of all Eurasian countries,
    it is attempting - in vain, undoubtedly - to lure Turkey and
    Azerbaijan away from a Western orientation. Failing that, Russia hopes
    such relations will produce short- to medium-term economic and
    political gains. For Russia's own sake, it should examine its past
    pro-Turkic missteps.

    Armenia and Russia will probably remain in a cycle of mutual need and
    suspicion for some time.

    As Armenia and Artsakh face the future, therefore, deeper insight into
    Russian strategy and intentions is essential.

    # # #

    David Boyajian is a freelance Armenian American journalist. Many of
    his articles are archived at Armeniapedia.org.


    http://hetq.am/eng/news/58661/sleeping-with-our-enemy-russia-sells-weapons-to-azerbaijan.html

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