Azerbaijani armed forces ready for enemy's destruction, says minister

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

The whole of Azerbaijan armed forces along the line of contact have been ordered to immediately destroy any moving object and the order is fulfilled unconditionally, said a top military official in Azerbaijan.

Defense Minister, Zakir Hasanov said Azerbaijan armed forces took effective measures against Armenia's ongoing aggression.

In a meeting with Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on April 22, Hasanov informed the OSCE official about developments on the contact line.

Hasanov said the criminal political-military regime in Armenia kept its own people in an information vacuum by hiding its losses, turning the youth into hostages and annihilating them in this senseless war. Hasanov’s address referred to Armenia's alleged accusations against Azerbaijan in view of periodical frontline escalations.

"The Azerbaijani armed forces are always ready to destroy the enemy. We fulfill this task worthily due to the new high-quality of our weapons - domestic production and foreign-made military-industrial systems," Hasanov said.

Hasanov put all blames on Armenia, the occupant of 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, for evading peace talks and exacerbating the situation along the line of contact.

After suffering serious losses, the Armenian forces resorted to firings at settlements, non-military facilities and peaceful residents in Azerbaijan, using mortars and large caliber weapons over the past days, said the minister.

Standing strong against Armenia's unceasing operations along the line of contact and formulating the necessary armament policy by adhering to international requirements comes as a significant move for the Azerbaijani leadership.

Azerbaijan is the second country- behind the United Kingdom, in Europe in terms of armament after it increased its arms imports by 249 percent over the past ten years,

SIPRI, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported. The country's military strengthening goes in line with the country's legal right of liberating its occupied lands by means of war should it be necessary.

As the country is suffering from the occupation of its internationally recognized lands, Azerbaijan's strong military skills should not be considered as an aggressive stance but rather the expression of Baku's desire to protect its people and land.

In one of his recent speeches, Hasanov said the Armenian authorities have already pushed the panic button over Azerbaijan's high-level combat and moral readiness. True to his nature, Hasanov once more announced that Azerbaijan will never allow Armenia's rulers to create a second Armenian state on Azerbaijani lands.

Azerbaijan's internationally recognized Nagorno-Karabakh territory has become a conflict zone following Armenia's aggression in the early 1990s. As a result of Armenia's armed invasion, 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory fell under Armenia's occupation. Nonetheless, the OSCE has attempted to foster a peaceful resolution to this conflict amid Armenia's persistent derailment.