Azerbaijan will present 'real threat' to Armenia

Fri 14 January 2011 07:51 GMT | 9:51 Local Time

News.Az interviews Azerbaijani military expert Vladimir Timoshenko, a lieutentant general (retired) in the air defence forces.

Armenian National Security Council Secretary Artur Bagdasaryan has said that Armenia and Russia will create nine joint ventures in the defence industry which will help to modernize and equip the armed forces. Will this boost Armenia's military potential?

Certainly, this raises the defence capacity and technical equipment of the Armenian armed forces and will reduce social tensions through the creation of new jobs at the enterprises. And purchasing equipment is different from producing it at home, as it is cheaper and, therefore, economically profitable to Armenia.

Everything that is connected with increasing and improving the technical equipment of the armed forces of Armenia does not promote a diplomatic resolution of the Karabakh conflict. This is certainly against us.

But Azerbaijan is not sitting twiddling its thumbs.

Of course, despite diplomatic steps, we are seriously engaged in strengthening our defence capacity and increasing the potential of our armed forces in all areas.

Certainly, we are not twiddling our thumbs. We give our views about what is happening in Armenia but do not talk about ourselves. We should talk less about what we are doing here. Arms are traditionally considered a closed issue and when one of the parties starts to speak about boosting its forces, this is not accepted by the opposite party. Armenia's current inspired shouts about strengthening its defensive power are just a show of weakness, blackmail, an attempt to intimidate, childish games. It is not a time when you can intimidate anyone. Considering the issues we are facing, Azerbaijan should implement its military doctrine, its plans and do what we have planned. It is just a matter of financing. Don't worry, we will not lag behind Armenia.

There were reports this week that this year Azerbaijan will start a project to create new armored hardware on the basis of the T-55 tank chassis. Azerbaijan is completing talks on this with one Israeli and two Turkish companies. What are the prospects for this project?

They are real. It is all real. Production will not be done only by Azerbaijan. It will be joint production and as many tanks as necessary will be produced. This can be achieved within two years.

Bagdasaran said that war with Azerbaijan was possibile at any moment. What is your view?

No, there is no such threat now, in the sense that today we still support the peaceful settlement of all issues and not only because the world community urges us to do so. We are oriented towards the current situation. We need some more time. But this time may come and then we will speak differently and the threat, spoken of by the Armenians, will become real. If they did not know our capacity, they would not have been developing the defence industry. This is because they are forced to do so by the situation in the region. We should not forget either the creation of the strategic alliance of Azerbaijan and Turkey that envisages military assistance. This prompts action in response from Armenia.

Leyla Tagiyeva
News.Az