"Azerbaijan proud of its army"

Azerbaijan is proud of its army, and the Armed Forces Day is a great holiday for the Azerbaijani people, the representatives of Azerbaijani public and government officials said, speaking with the correspondents of Vestnik Kavkaza.

The Deputy Director General of the Trend information agency, political commentator Arzu Nagiyev, noted that the Armed Forces Day is inextricably linked not only with the history of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, but also with the life of modern independent Azerbaijan. "Our first armed forces of the sovereign Azerbaijani state were created shortly after the ADR was proclaimed independent in 1918. The troops were revived in 1991, after the Republic of Azerbaijan was established, and over these 27 years they have traveled a very long way. The Azerbaijani army is among the 50 strongest armies of the whole world," he said.

"The priority of Azerbaijan is solving  the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Azerbaijani army plays an important role in achieving this goal, and the Azerbaijani people are proud of it. Creating such an army, one must have a strong economy, and thanks to our high economic indicators, we have all the opportunities to maintain the combat capability at the right level. The parade once again demonstrated that the Azerbaijani army has great modern weapons that we buy in Russia and other countries, such as Pakistan and Turkey. In addition, we make our own weapons for both importing and equipping our army," Arzu Nagiyev said.

"Today's celebration showed the might of the Azerbaijani state and the Azerbaijani army. The people and the army are united and ready to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by military means - but, nevertheless, we still choose peace, since Azerbaijan is a peaceful state and observes all international norms and rules. But still I think that the Azerbaijani army will have its victories, such as the 2016 April battles for Karabakh," the Deputy Director General of the Trend information agency added.

Professor of the Western Caspian University, political scientist Fikret Sadykhov stressed the historical significance of today's jubilee. "First of all, the formation of the Azerbaijani army was a historic event, it is the memory of our people about the days when the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was proclaimed. The formation of the army was extremely important for the ADR, since the young republic needed to strengthen its military positions," he said.

"Moreover, now when part of the territory of Azerbaijan is occupied, the strength of our army, its defence capability and possibility to liberate our own territory are extremely important. The strength of our troops was demonstrated today to the world community during the military parade. I think that the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Armed Forces of Azerbaijan once again confirmed spirit and will of the Azerbaijani people, our desire to liberate our territories and always be in charge of guarding the borders of our country," Sadikhov pointed out.

Milli Majlis deputy Aydin Mirzazade said that the 100th anniversary of Armed Forces of Azerbaijan is the joyous holiday. "During the existence of an independent democratic republic, the armed forces defended its territorial integrity and independence. After the Republic of Azerbaijan became independent, the army was revived. And after Heydar Aliyev came to power in 1993, the most serious attention was given to the issue of the development of modern armed forces," he said.

"Over the years of independence, we managed to create an army which meets the highest military requirements. Our armed forces liberated a certain part of the occupied territories. Every Azerbaijani lives today in joy due to such a historic event, because the armed forces is our national symbol and one of the serious factors for the existence of an independent state. It is a great honor for every Azerbaijani guy to join the army," Aydin Mirzazade pointed out.

"The armed forces are given a lot of attention at the highest level. Our armed forces participate in international processes of stabilization and peacemaking activities in different countries. We also pay much attention to military-technical cooperation with friendly countries, in particular, Azerbaijan has very close relations with Russia in this sphere. Thanks to the armed forces, among other things, Azerbaijan will always retain its worthy place in the world community," the Milli Majlis deputy concluded.