The army that at the dawn of its history, together with Nuri Pasha’s Islamic Army of the Caucasus, marched from Ganja to Baku, liberated the capital of Azerbaijan from the Dashnaks, Bolsheviks and their allies, and then gained another victory, this time over Armenia, in Karabakh and Zangezur. Later, on April 28, 1920, we were robbed of our independence, our army and the fruits of that victory when Zangezur was given to Armenia.
They were sure that it was forever. And they tried to convince us that the words “Azerbaijan” and “army” did not belong in the same sentence. Back in World War II, the 416th Taganrog Division stormed Berlin, and the 77th Sergo Ordzhonikidze Mountain Rifle Division knocked the Nazis out of Crimea, but they kept telling us that conscripts from Azerbaijan were only good for construction battalions.
But today we are reclaiming our country, our army, and now our territories as well. For the first time in 200 years, Azerbaijan is not losing, but regaining its lands. And it does it by military, or more precisely, military-political means. For the third time we are celebrating our holiday as a country that won the war.
Today, we could probably remember how we celebrated the day of our army over the years. How we used to display new weapons at parades even before the war. How military experts in Armenia observed with astonishment: this is a completely different army now. With different weapons and even with different combat training.
And we could remember that there was an anniversary military parade in Azerbaijan’s history, on June 26, 2018. On the centennial of our army. And the statement of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev: “The Azerbaijani flag was raised in the lands liberated from the invaders in the April 2016 battles, the 2018 Nakhchivan operation. This has great moral significance. These flags will be displayed today in this parade in Azadlig Square. These flags guided our military forward. These flags were in combat. Today they are flying in the liberated Azerbaijani lands and they have been brought here for today’s parade. The day will come when the Azerbaijani flag, raised after liberation in the lands remaining under occupation today, will be brought to Azadlig Square and shown at the military parade. We must and we are bringing this sacred day closer.”
There were still the July battles and the 44-day war ahead. We still had to travel our Victory Road in every sense. But Azerbaijan already had an Army with a capital A. An army that in two years would do what seemed to many an impossible mission—liberate Karabakh. And our Victory Parade would take place in Azadlig Square again. The parade with combat flags that our soldiers raised over the liberated cities, with trophy military equipment on white tow trucks.
Today our army is not just accepting congratulations on its 105th anniversary. Speaking at the ceremony of presenting the combat flag of the commando military unit yesterday, the President of Azerbaijan, the victorious Supreme Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev, stressed: “The Patriotic War ended with a complete victory for the Azerbaijani state. But despite this, more steps are being taken to build up the army after the war, and there is a great need for that. After all, the geopolitical situation in the world is becoming increasingly strained; there are new emerging threats in our region, and revanchist forces are rising in Armenia again. With all this in mind, the task of further strengthening our Army remains the number one priority. Of course, comprehensive measures are being taken to achieve this. After the Patriotic War, purchasing new weapons has continued, and many contracts have already been signed, for new unmanned aerial vehicles and long-range missiles for our country, missiles of great destructive power and high precision. The process of upgrading the structure of the Ministry of Defense is also underway. I am confident that the decisions made regarding military education will bear fruit soon.”
This is a message the importance of which cannot be overstated. Army building is, pardon the comparison, not a “one-off” deal. A diamond necklace or a gold tie pin can be bought once and then retrieved from the box when needed, but an army requires constant work and investment. It is a very difficult and costly undertaking. But a state without a combat-ready army is a game of Russian roulette. Or dancing on a minefield. Suffice it to recall, for example, Kuwait, the richest oil emirate, where nobody believed either that the country would have to fight, and fight in earnest, until the summer of 1990, when Saddam Hussein, after an easy occupation of the country, declared it a new Iraqi province. Or the countries of Europe on the eve of World War II, where they too did not believe that the world would have to fight again after the horrific carnage of World War I.
We live in an all too dangerous and unpredictable world today. Unfortunately, the plans to redraw our borders by force and crush our independence have not been relegated to the archives. Unfortunately, there are countries that still have not accepted the fact that Azerbaijan is an independent state. And there are countries for which Azerbaijan’s independence is like a thorn in the side of the throat. We do not have the right to be naïve and complacent, we cannot afford post-victory euphoria. And our paradise is still under the canopy of blades.
