"Therefore, immediately after the war, along with all other reconstruction work, we, as always, continued to pay attention to the military field. I must say that after the war, new and large contracts were signed with Turkish and Israeli companies. The implementation of some of these contracts has started, others have been completed, and others still are continuing," the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said at a meeting on the results of the first quarter of this year on April 12, Report informs.
"Each day of the 44-day war has been analyzed in-depth, and, of course, this analysis allowed us the opportunity to build our future army on the basis of the real situation. Taking this into account, the purchase of new weaponry and equipment is also being arranged. At the same time, after the war, the Ministry of Defense has undergone restructuring. Structural changes have been made, and this will further strengthen and modernize our army. After the war, a new type of troops – the Commandos – was created, and I personally attended the opening of the first Commando military base in Hadrut. This is a very strong army contingent. I am sure that this contingent can now perform any task. We will increase the number of commandos every year. I think it would be inappropriate to disclose information about their numbers, but everyone should know that thousands of fully trained fighters have already been and will continue to be trained.
"At the same time, the number of Special Forces personnel who showed special heroism in the second Karabakh war has been increased, and it will continue to be increased. We will allocate and are already allocating as much as is necessary for military issues. In Armenia, the picture is completely different. They can only spend the financial aid allocated to Armenia from abroad or unrepaid loans. I want to clarify this issue as well. I believe that in order to establish peace in the region, the process of arming Armenia must be stopped. Armenia does not have the money to buy weapons. It never did. In the second Karabakh war, we destroyed Armenia's military equipment worth about 4-5 billion dollars. Some of this equipment was taken as spoils of war, and we are using it. Some of it is displayed in the Military Trophies Park. The question is: where does so much money come from in a poor country? Where do these loans come from? Were these loans then repaid or written off? If those loans had not been given to them, I am sure there would have been no need for the second Karabakh war. Armenia would have meekly come to us seeking an agreement, just as it did when signing the act of capitulation, accepting all our conditions, and acting completely differently after the war. Therefore, if money is allocated for the armament of Armenia again, we will consider it an unfriendly step and will take our steps accordingly.
"I want to say again that as a country living at its own expense, we will, of course, allocate as much as we need to build an army," the head of state added.