CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 31

TINA KHARATYAN
Overall, the policy implementation in accordance with the MD provi-
sions and, especially, with the 7 th section of the document (Development
of military power) brought Azerbaijan to the 58th place among 133 coun-
tries with the power index rating of 0.8875 (0.0000 being perfect) accord-
ing to the US-based survey Center the Global Firepower. 41 The military
capabilities and the size of armed structures allowed The Global Fire-
power to call Azerbaijan the strongest military power in the South Cau-
casus (according to Global Firepower Georgia is in the 82nd place, and
Armenia was ranked to the 93rd).
Developing the army structure
According to the Global fi repower, the active military personnel com-
prised of 67.000 manpower and the reserve personnel reached 307.000. 42
Besides army troops, Azerbaijan has the separate subdivision of inter-
nal troops, state border service also known as Border Guard of Azerbai-
jan and the armed forces of National guard incorporated into the Spe-
cial State Protection service. These subdivisions, of course, strengthen
the power and size of Azerbaijani military forces and serve as a mecha-
nism to bypass the inspections regulated by CFE (Adapted Convention-
al Armed Forces in Europe) treaty put into the force since 1992. For in-
stance, the Border Guard of Azerbaijan has capabilities to intervene and
defend Azerbaijani borders under the command of President, if it is nec-
essary to support army divisions. This means that Border Guard may be-
come a direct participant in combat operations. Particular attention is giv-
en to the development of those border divisions, which are located near
Azerbaijan-Armenia or Azerbaijan-Karabakh borders such as division of
Horadiz or Yevlakh.
Army of Azerbaijan consisted of ground forces, naval and air forces.
Azerbaijan consistently strengthens its fi ghter aircraft, the main function
of which to provide air defense and support to the ground forces in case
of combat operations. Azerbaijan immensely purchases Unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAV) including IAI Heron UAVs sold by Israel, which is con-
sidered as one of the best-selling UAVs since 2013. 43 Azerbaijan actively
improves military capabilities and structural units of air forces, and in this
context, it is important to mention the development of air bases located
nearby Azerbaijan-Karabakh or Armenia borders. In this list are included
41
42
43
“Azerbaijan Military Strenght,” The Global Firepower, 2017, https://www.globalfi repower.
com/country-military-strength-detail.asp?country_id=azerbaijan (accessed June 12, 2018).
Ibid.
“V ojidanii buri: Yujniy Kavkaz,” (in Russian), [“Waiting for a storm: The South Cauca-
sus”], Ed. by Konstantin Makienko, (Moscow: Center of Analysis of Strategies and Technol-
ogies, 2018).
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