Suicide rates increase in Azerbaijani army; Morale is poor
The Azerbaijani media reports about the suicide cases
recorded on July 10 and July 11 among the troops of the State Border Guard
Service of the country.
In parallel, Azerbaijan keeps committing acts of
provocations on a regular basis both along the borders of Artsakh and the
Republic of Armenia, thus disrupting the regular course of life of the civilian
population, shelling positions, and using artillery means and air force.
Recently, the number of such cases both in the Azerbaijani
Armed Forces and the State Border Guard Service has sharply increased.
The military bases that are being built and vividly
demonstrated, are mainly located in the occupied territories and are meant to
redress grievances of their own society about the conditions under which their
soldiers do military service. However, this has nothing to do with reality.
Remote and border villages, military bases, combat positions, particularly newly
constructed ones, are deprived of basic facilities. The latest cases of suicide
have been recorded mainly in the units under the command of the newly
constructed military bases. The latter are located in territories near the
contact line between the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan. With this regard,
one of the cases was recorded in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. According
to the Azerbaijani mass media, the initiated criminal case was submitted to the
Office of the Prosecutor of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. To note, this
is a sign indicating poor morale among servicemen, especially conscripts and
contract servicemen.
The personnel training level, at least in terms of morale
has never been excellent in the three main institutions of Azerbaijani security
sector, that is the army, the State Border Guard Service and Internal troops,
under the command of which conscripts do their military service. The situation
was somehow improved in the wake of the 2020 war. However, after the September
clashes in 2021, disorder, confusion and poor discipline again raise their ugly
heads.
Constant arrests and dismissals among high-ranking military
personnel also stand as a perfect illustration of the above-mentioned
reality.
Now, let us refer to the continuous provocations, endless
flow of misinformation, news about wounded soldiers on the Azerbaijani side and
the unfavorable social conditions in the administrative areas of Azerbaijan,
particularly in villages far from Baku. Today, the society tries to exercise
its popular will from time to time. Grievances increase. Thus, the most
efficient instrument for subduing and suppressing the society, used by the
terrorist regime of the enemy state for more than a decade, is the circulation
of news about another attack planned by Armenians and the state-funded
publication of touching stories about the wounded and fallen soldiers.
They officially announce that a greater part of government
funds is allocated to the military sector, that one day they will return to
“Western Azerbaijan” and take entire “Karabakh”. These theses have already
become the main guideline for state policy. With this regard, we should also
refer to the fact that cooperation with Turkey, in terms of combat readiness,
and with Israel, in terms of armament supplies, has increased at least twice in
the last year.
Unfortunately, the Aliyev clan is ready to commit
provocations, even if they end up in failure in some cases. At the beginning,
the provocations will be slight for the sake of forever keeping a tight grip on
their population and for the idea of causing pain to at least one Armenian
family every day. They will never betray that principle.
Aram Poladyan
Expert in Azerbaijani Affairs
