SIPRI Senior Researcher Paul Holtom: Azerbaijan is preparing for the possibility of a renewed conflict over its lost territory of Nagorno-Karabakh
Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have gone on a weapons spending spree over the past decade, collectively increasing their defense spending fivefold.
Armenia increased its annual defense spending from $93 million in 1999 to $217 million in 2008, according to a report recently released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, that used constant 2005 dollars to track the figures.
Azerbaijan’s military budget rose from $133 million in 1999 to $697 million in 2008, and Georgia’s went from $39.8 million to $651 million over the same period.
Azerbaijan received 70 armored personnel carriers of the BTR-80A variety from Russia in 2009, and arranged with South Africa’s Paramount Groups to start producing Matador and Marauder mine-protected vehicles in Azerbaijan. Those vehicles will likely be assembled in Azerbaijan, and could mark the first movement toward Baku’s stated goal of creating a domestic defense industry that can produce export-worthy military hardware, Holtom said.
Azerbaijan’s focus on new ground vehicles and its recent purchases of unmanned drone aircraft from Israel, combined with Baku’s increasingly bellicose rhetoric toward Armenia, leaves little doubt that Azerbaijan is preparing for the possibility of a renewed conflict over its lost territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, Holtom said.
"With the rhetoric that’s been coming out in recent months, it’s clear to what end this buildup is for, it’s Nagorno-Karabakh," Holtom said. But SPIRI’s report on Azerbaijan little differs from the above-stated figures:
On 22 October, 2010 the parliament of Azerbaijan has approved the bill on double increase of expenses on military needs. The Minister of Finance of Azerbaijan Samir Sharifov told that in 2011 the military budget of the country would increase by 90 % and would make 2,5 billion ($3,1 billion).
Azerbaijan received 70 armored personnel carriers of the BTR-80A variety from Russia in 2009, and arranged with South Africa’s Paramount Groups to start producing Matador and Marauder mine-protected vehicles in Azerbaijan. Those vehicles will likely be assembled in Azerbaijan, and could mark the first movement toward Baku’s stated goal of creating a domestic defense industry that can produce export-worthy military hardware, Holtom said.
Azerbaijan’s focus on new ground vehicles and its recent purchases of unmanned drone aircraft from Israel, combined with Baku’s increasingly bellicose rhetoric toward Armenia, leaves little doubt that Azerbaijan is preparing for the possibility of a renewed conflict over its lost territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, Holtom said.
"With the rhetoric that’s been coming out in recent months, it’s clear to what end this buildup is for, it’s Nagorno-Karabakh," Holtom said. But SPIRI’s report on Azerbaijan little differs from the above-stated figures:
On 22 October, 2010 the parliament of Azerbaijan has approved the bill on double increase of expenses on military needs. The Minister of Finance of Azerbaijan Samir Sharifov told that in 2011 the military budget of the country would increase by 90 % and would make 2,5 billion ($3,1 billion).
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