Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 14
Trend:
Azerbaijan will hold large-scale operational-tactical exercises with participation of various military branches of troops, army corpses and formations Sept. 17-22, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said in a message Sept. 14.
The exercises, to be held under the supervision of Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, will involve more than 20,000 military personnel, more than 200 tanks and other armored vehicles, more than 120 rocket and artillery mounts of different calibers, multiple launch rocket systems and mortars, as well as 30 aircraft for various purposes.
As part of the exercises, the tank breakthrough of the enemy's echeloned defense in several directions, the crushing defeat of armed groups and forward units of Armenia in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh will be worked out, tasks will be fulfilled for liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani territories by destruction of military and strategic facilities of the enemy by rocket artillery and air strikes.
The military personnel’s skills of using the military equipment and weapons that have been adopted into the armament of the Azerbaijani army over the past year will also be checked.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.