Despite huge defense expenses, the Azerbaijani army is in a poor state and corruption is rampant there, Richard Giragosian, Director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS), said at a roundtable NEWS.am.

According to him, Azerbaijan with its army is the only destabilizing factor in the region. Even huger defense expenses failed to improve the army’s efficiency. The funds are mostly misused. So the militarist games round Nagorno-Karabakh pose a threat to the Azerbaijani authorities themselves. For example, the late Azeri leader Heydar Aliyev did not increase the defense expenses as he realized the Azeri army’s threat to the country itself, Giragosian said.

Should hostilities resume in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, the weak, corrupted and demoralized Azerbaijani army will suffer defeat, the expert said.

Comparing the Armenian and Azerbaijani armies, Giragosian pointed out that the Azeri army is numerically stronger, but is much inferior in terms of quality. The Armenian army has always had highly experienced officers. Even in the Soviet times several Armenian marshals and hundreds of generals served in the Soviet army, whereas Azerbaijanis were mostly noted at army kitchens, the expert said. He stressed that the Armenian army is most efficient in the region even as compared with the Georgian army. Even technically the Azerbaijani army is better than the Armenian army only in terms of figures, but not in terms of quality. Azerbaijan inherited most of its military equipment from the time of the October revolution.

Gigagosian stressed that the air forces – or rather their not being properly manned – are the Achilles’ heel of the Azeri army. Azerbaijan cannot be said to have high-quality military equipment, as three of the four helicopters are not operating. However, the Armenian air forces lack military equipment as well.

By way of illustration, Giragosian said that the Armenian army is preparing for wars of the 21st century, whereas the Azerbaijani army still applying the Napoleonic strategy of the 18th century. According to him, the Armenian army is especially good at waging local wars. According to him, the Armenian army should follow the example of Israel’s armed forces.