Pakistani newspaper highlights Azerbaijani parade

Pakistani newspaper Daily Times has published an article highliting a military parade staged by Azerbaijan to mark the 93rd anniversary of the founding of the country`s Armed Forces.
“Azerbaijan paraded thousands of soldiers and hundreds of military vehicles through its capital Sunday in a show of force two days after talks failed to resolve a bitter territorial dispute with Armenia.”

The article said: “Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who has overseen massive increases in defence spending, warned in his speech that he was ready to take back the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region, which was seized from Azerbaijan in the 1990s by Armenian separatist forces backed by Yerevan.”

“I am completely sure that our territorial integrity will be resumed in any possible way,” Aliyev was shown on state television as saying at the parade to mark armed forces day. “Therefore, we should be even stronger.” “The war is not over yet,” Aliyev said at the showpiece parade in the centre of Baku, vowing to end what he called the “occupation” of Karabakh. “The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan must be restored and the territory will be restored,” he said.

“Six thousand troops marched in the parade, accompanied by tanks, armoured cars and rocket launchers, as fighter planes and combat helicopters roared overhead and warships lined up in the nearby Caspian Sea bay. In his speech, Aliyev also spoke approvingly about the increases in defence spending financed by the energy-rich state’s huge revenues from oil and gas exports.”
“Azerbaijan has fulfilled the task that I set, which was that Azerbaijan’s military expenditure must exceed the entire state budget of Armenia,” he said, noting that defence spending reached $3.3 billion (2.3 billion euros) this year. “Military expenditure occupies first place in the state budget of Azerbaijan and that is understandable. It will be like this as long as our lands are not liberated,” he said.

“Military hardware manufactured in Azerbaijan, including unmanned drones, was on show for the first time to highlight the country’s expanding defence industry. The “Armed Forces Day” parade in Baku was the third in the country’s post-Soviet history and also marked this year’s 20th anniversary of independence.”


/AzerTAc/