Taisiya Gordeeva: "There have never been deserters among Azerbaijani servicemen"

- You have been defending rights of servicemen for many years and you have direct contacts with the Azerbaijani army. What do you think of it?

- Today's Azerbaijani army is quite strong to release Karabakh and all the lands occupied by Armenia alone. These are not unfounded statements, these are facts. It is strong and surpasses the Armenian army in number and by technical equipment.

By the way, here I would like to note that in case war is resumed, we will have to fight not with Armenia but with separatist military formations in Nagorno Karabakh. Certainly, there are Armenian soldiers and Armenian army there, though Armenia conceals it. But it is not so strong, as it seems to Armenians, who are sitting in trenches there. I am more than convinced that Azerbaijan is capable of liberating Karabakh alone and it will do it either peacefully or by force.

- What are the strong and weak points of our army?

- Its strong points are the growing level of technical equipment, assimilation of new military technique, rise in the quality and quantity... Well, the week points... I would say as follows- Azerbaijani army would have been much stronger, if stronger guys, born leaders, fighters, who must be brought up in the military and patriotic spirits on examples of the Azerbaijani heroes of the Great Patriotic war, are recruited. Now the army faces the problem when cowards or sick soldiers are recruited and there are cases when soldiers are falling ill in the army. I think it is necessary to toughen demands for soldiers health and their physical development and raise the norms of nutrition and physical readiness.

- Which problems in the army are urgent?

- I do not see any global problem in the armed forces. They get large sums from the state budget and here the Ministry of Defense must use them fairly, transparently and rationally.

I think it is also necessary to strengthen public control over the armed forces, like the one conducted by Alekper Mamedov, chief of the center for democratic control over the armed forces, To raise the public prestige of the armed forces so that draftees are strive for it themselves, like in Turkey, and do not try to escape from it.

- What about escaping? What do you think of cases of desertion in the army?

- There have never been deserters in the Azerbaijani army. This issue has been discussed for years and I can say in open that there are no deserters in our country, there are soldiers, who do not want to serve in inhumane conditions.

I will explain: There are two articles in the Azerbaijani legislation -333 and 334. The first one means "deliberate abandonment of the military unit or failure of a serviceman to return to the military unit". It implies careful investigation into the reasons of the failure to return or abandonment, learning extenuating circumstances and others.

Article 334 is almost identical to 333 but with an important annex- "deliberate abandonment of a military unit or failure to return for the purpose of stop serving". It is applied in case when all conditions are created for the soldier and he still escapes from the unit and does not want to serve, thus refusing to fulfill his military duty of the Azerbaijani citizen, fixed in artile 76 of the constitution. This is real desertion.

But the point is that Azerbaijan has never had such deserters! Our Azerbaijani guys are patriots of their country and most of them want to serve but in normal conditions. Not to fall ill. They are just 18-19 years and sometimes they find themselves in inhumane life-threatening conditions.

- What do you mean by sating "serve in normal conditions"?

- To fulfill military duties and not to buy presents for officers. To eat normally and not when cooks and commanders want, to learn to treat weapon. This is the greatest problem. Visiting the military units I often see soldiers with buckets, rags and brooms in their hands, but very seldom I see them on the sport grounds with arms... But visits to polygons must be regular not just on paper.

- Are you pleased with the work of the military medical commission?

- There are good doctors there. Nevertheless, I am for creation of medical commissions under the Health Ministry. Until the recruitment commission is controlled by the Defense Ministry, its work will never be 100% unbiased, as their is a plan of the number of draftees and standards.

I think this commission should be led by Minister Oqtay Shiraliyev as the list of diseases, for which a draftee is not eligible, is ratified by the Cabinet of Ministers and not the Defense Ministry.

/Day.Az/