CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 39

TINA KHARATYAN
ident’s speeches. In this context, Aliyev makes statements such as “how
deep is the sense of patriotism in Azerbaijani soldiers and how they can
acquire a victory in any crisis” 73 or “the courage of our soldiers returned
Leletepe and Aghdara, we will restore the historical justice soon”. 74
Overall, in his speeches Aliyev does not cite the MD very often. How-
ever, repetitive claims on “liberating territories through any means”, “ne-
cessity of military mobilization”, “increasing spiritual readiness and patri-
otic sense of the army” etc. are refl ected in the MD of the RA as separate
clauses and provisions. Therefore, even if direct citations to the document
are absent in most cases, the link between document’s goals and Aliyev’s
statements is clear. This allows to conclude that Ilham Aliyev’s speeches
follow the “soul” of the MD of Azerbaijan and have an aim not only to le-
gitimize high ranks of military spending and intensive militarization, but
achieve public securitization and social cohesion as well.
Conclusion
The research revealed that number one priority for Azerbaijan is the
constant military growth, army modernization and its readiness for war.
The Military Doctrine served as a guideline for fulfi lling these objectives.
The MD has become the proper installation of Azerbaijani aspirations to
restore territorial integrity by any means including military operations. The
document provided an impetus to spend billions of dollars on purchasing
weaponry, developing army structure, constructing new military bases and
enlarging arms production. The analysis in the third section shows how the
military policies of Azerbaijan suit the provisions of the Doctrine as it was
able to register a huge military build-up and improve the army structure
within several years. Moreover, if to compare the current military indices of
Azerbaijan with the indices registered before 2010, it is clear that the Doc-
trine gave another shape to the military development of the country. Poli-
cy implementation derived from the MD contributed to the evolvement of
military partnership with diff erent countries. Azerbaijan enhanced military
partnership not only with its key allies such as Turkey or Israel but took
steps to establish and develop military cooperation with other countries as
well including Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Steps were undertaken to develop
arms production in accordance with the “soul” of the Doctrine as well.
The fi ndings explain the causation between the policy implementation
stemming from the MD and registered military build-up in Azerbaijan.
73
74
“Speech of Ilham Aliyev in the Cabinet of Ministers assessing the socio-economic develop-
ments of the fi rst half of 2016”.
“Speech of Ilham Aliyev devoted to Novruz Bayrami,” 2017.
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