Azerbaijan Tries to Terrorize Us by the Law on Military Service for Foreigners

• 02.18.2015, 18:45
• Hermine Mkhitaryan
•  Region,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World,  Analytics

- It has recently become known, that in the Azerbaijani army foreigners can also sign a military contract. What is this decision about and what are the requirements for foreigners to start their service in the Azerbaijani armed forces.  

- On February 2, the decision of the Azerbaijani government confirmed the order and the requirements for contractual military service. In a separate point the decision states that the right of contractual military service will refer also to foreigners and individuals with no citizenship. For the people in this category the decision defines almost minimal requirements: identification document, application, document on education (at least secondary) and photos. Both men and women, aged 19-40, can start contractual military service.

The practice of keeping the army by employing foreigners has been used by many states and it can pursue different objectives. The most widespread is, for example, to keep army when there are no sufficient resources; the one, which, of course is not a desired situation for normal states. After all, a state will have to pay salary to those soldiers and rely on them for one of the most important functions of the state – self-defense of the country. Perhaps this is the reason why in the past many specialists perceived the involvement of foreigners in the army as a sign of a state’s imminent decline or at least as a sign of its weakness.

The situation is slightly different in Azerbaijan, where every day there are high level statements on the intention to start a war. In this case it becomes obvious that Azerbaijani government strives to solve many problems by making such kind of decision and by choosing this particular method to keep its army.  

- In your opinion, what are the intentions behind this decision right now?

- Certainly, it is not by chance that the Azerbaijani military leadership initiated this step right now. I think there are several objectives behind this decision. First, this decision can turn into an efficient tool directed to the inner audience. During the whole post-war period and particularly during the recent years, the wave of resentment for border incidents and for soldiers’ peacetime deaths has been increasing in Azerbaijan.  By taking foreigners for military service the government aims at sending the following message to its society: instead of the Azerbaijanis (national minorities included) there will be foreign contract soldiers in the frontline.

This step is also a propaganda addressed to the Armenian society and is an attempt to form an atmosphere of terror. It does so by making an impression as if Azerbaijani army continues to grow and become more powerful. If viewed in far-reaching perspective, no one can exclude the possibility that Azerbaijan will in the end start large scale, real military operations. In that case an Azerbaijani government by its decision also solves the problem of keeping hired soldiers: it makes the  process legal to be able to resolve the issue of those foreign soldiers’ status in case of possible military actions.

In reality there is another interesting factor. A logical question arises: who will those foreigners and individuals with no citizenship be to serve in the Azerbaijani army.  Taking into consideration present strained situation in the world and in the region, Azerbaijan does not have wide range of choices.

Those contract soldiers can even become members of different terrorist groups in the region. For the members of those groups, this presents the best opportunity to legally do the same, what they did in the past and get paid for it. No doubt, the Azerbaijani officials and Aliyev clan are not interested in such kind of issues at all, but in case of employing and following this strategy Azerbaijan pretends to become a country which sponsors and contributes to the spreading of terrorism on the highest official level.