Defense Ministry: Use of foreign mercenaries widely practiced in Armenian army
By Akbar Mammadov
The Azerbaijan Defence Ministry has said that the practice of using foreign mercenaries is widely used in the Armenian armed forces due to the lack of conscripts and mobilization resources in that country.
In the statement posted in its official Facebook page on August 19, the ministry also spoke about the April battles of 2016 where Armenian forces were defeated.
“The Armenian people should know that [Former President Serzh] Sargsyan and his military-political regime are the cause of the crushing defeat of the Armenian army in the April battles,” the ministry said.
The ministry’s statement comes after Sargsyan’s false allegations yesterday about the presence of military instructors from Turkey and Israel in the Azerbaijani Army during the April battles.
The ministry said that Sargsyan’s statement was aimed to restore his reputation amid the Armenian parliamentary commission’s investigation of Armenia’s defeat in the April war.
“It is not surprising that Sargsyan, who partially recovered from the impact of the blow he received four years after the April war, voiced such nonsense in order to justify himself,” the ministry stated.
The ministry said that the Azerbaijani army is presently staffed with professional military personnel trained both in the country and in the world’s most prestigious military educational institutions, and has the state-of-the-art weapons and military equipment in its arsenal.
The Azerbaijani army is capable of preventing any Armenian provocation, the ministry concluded.
The ministry also reminded Armenia’s military provocation on the border with Azerbaijan last month, saying that the Azerbaijani army resolutely repelled the Armenian attack.The cross-border clashes on the border started with Armenia's shelling Azerbaijani positions in Azerbaijan's strategically-important Tovuz district on July 12. The Armenian attack killed 12 Azerbaijani servicemen, including an army general, as well as a 76-year-old civilian. Armenian forcers retreated after suffering losses in Azerbaijan's retaliation.
The April battles of 2016, also known as the four-day-war, were initiated by Armenian military provocation on the line of contact. During the battles, the Azerbaijani army displayed military superiority over the Armenian, repelling the Armenian attack and liberating parts of Aghdara, Fuzuli and Cabrayil regions from occupation.
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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97
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