The military imbalance in the Karabakh conflict

WRussian journalist Ilya Asar has described what he looks like behind the Nagornyj Karabakh front. For this week’s “Novaya Gazeta”, he reported on the aftermath of the bombing in the Armenian-controlled area that Azerbaijan is about to regain. Asar met a volunteer fighter. This spoke out against the 320 soldiers who had been killed by the unrecognized “Nagornyj Karabakh Republic” on Wednesday of “thousands killed” on the Armenian side. There are not enough weapons, ammunition, tanks: “With assault rifle against the air force and artillery. I am like a living corpse ”. In the report, he and other fighters raised charges against their military leadership. With consequences for the journalist: Asar reported on Thursday that the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had withdrawn his accreditation and prohibited him from working “because of the negative public response” to his report.

In terms of economic performance, Armenia and Azerbaijan are among the ten most armed countries in the world, according to the Sipri Peace Research Institute. The reason is their conflict over Nagornyj Karabakh and seven surrounding areas, also occupied by Armenians. Armenia, as a member of the Moscow defense alliance “Collective Security Treaty Organization”, obtains its weapons mainly from Russia, at reduced prices and with Russian loans. These include the increasingly important drones; In addition, according to its own statements, Armenia also produces such UAVs.

Drones are crucial in combat

However, Armenian weapons are not considered as advanced as Azerbaijani ones. The Baku army has repeatedly failed due to the fortress system in the Nagornyj Karabach mountains above the plain. But dictator Ilham Aliyev used the proceeds from oil and gas sales to modernize his army. He now proudly publishes videos of precision strikes against Armenian artillery and anti-aircraft positions, tanks and soldiers. Reconnaissance and combat drones play a crucial role.

Azerbaijan has many business friends, including Russians, South Koreans, Turks, and Israelis. The latter are a key partner. Israel gets up to forty percent of its oil from the country through Turkey. At the same time, according to Sipri, it supplies 60 percent of all arms imports to Azerbaijan. Since 1992, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has imposed an embargo on the deliveries of arms and ammunition against the parties to the conflict Armenia and Azerbaijan. As an OSCE partner country, Israel is free to join the embargo, so it does not feel bound by it. Israeli drone maker Aeronautics has been operating a factory with the Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense since 2011. And when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Baku in 2016, Aliyev announced that he had made $ 5 billion in arms sales.

These include radar systems, ballistic missiles and drones, of which a kamikaze drone called “Harop” in particular caused a sensation during the most recent fighting. The “Harop” drones had “proven to be very effective,” Hajjev said. Drones made by the Israeli state armaments company IAI can circle a combat zone for hours, then descend quite precisely and destroy themselves and the target with the explosive charge they carry. Immediately before and during the fighting in Nagornyj Karabakh, at least four Azerbaijani heavy cargo planes had flown into the Israeli military airport in Uvda, the content of which has so far only been speculated.