CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 21

TINA KHARATYAN
THE MILITARY DOCTRINE OF AZERBAIJAN:
ASSESSING THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS AND
POLICY IMPLICATION
Abstract
In June 2010 the Military Doctrine was adopted in Azerbaijan, and new pol-
icies were put into implementation based on the vision of the document. The
MD has become the proper installation of Azerbaijani aspirations to restore
territorial integrity by any means including military operations. The docu-
ment provided an impetus to spend billions of dollars on purchasing weapon-
ry, developing army structure, constructing new military bases and enlarging
arms production. Policies derived from the Doctrine not only pushed the rap-
id military growth of Azerbaijan but led to the high level of public securi-
tization as well. Therefore, this research has an aim to assess the causation
between the document adoption and defense policies, which were implement-
ed to guide the military build-up of Azerbaijan and achieve social unity legiti-
mizing the possibility of war.
Keywords: military doctrine, Azerbaijan, military build-up, Nagorno-Kara-
bakh confl ict
Introduction
The four-day war in April 2016 cost the lives of 106 Armenians. It
has become the most intense eruption of violence since the ceasefi re was
signed by Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Nagorno-Karabakh in May 1994. Al-
though the April war is considered as a peak of escalations since 1994, it
is not an exceptional case of ceasefi re violation. Front-line aggression and
violations of ceasefi re have become more intense and frequent especially
in the past nine years. But the question why the character and frequency
of ceasefi re violations have been changed recently remains open. There
are indications to claim that Azerbaijan proves to be more confi dent to
provoke violence as intentions to develop the army have given tangible
results. Azerbaijan has tried to enhance its military capabilities since its
independence. But the adoption of Military Doctrine in 2010 has marked
a new phase in the military build-up of the country. Policies derived from
21