On 21 June, Azerbaijan’s defence minister, Zakir Hasanov, gave an exclusive interview highlighting the country’s military modernisation programme during the past seven years. Full interview provided by Azeri CBC   The highlights of the interview below: “today, 80% of Azerbaijan’s army consists of professionals (officers, commanders, etc.), 10% are civilians,Continue Reading

On 20 June, Azeri defence officials inaugurated a new facilities building at a special forces military base on the outskirts of Baku. According to an official notification, the building includes a commander’s hall, classrooms and medical facilities, the opening ceremony was headed by Special Forces commander Hikmet Mirzayev, with noContinue Reading

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev paid a visit to newly-constructed military base 10 km from the central segment of  the line-of-contact near the abandoned town of Aghdam. News of the visit was published on the president’s official webpage as well as that of the Defence Ministry. This is significant, in that,Continue Reading

On 5 May, Azeri defence minister, Zakir Hasanov, the head of the Military Affairs department of the presidential administration, Maharram Aliyev,  along with other high-ranking military officials visited military installations along the line-of-contact. According to an official publication by Azeri defence officials, the area visited was between the Karabakhi villageContinue Reading

The beginning of May saw a series of threatening messages exchanged between Azeri and Karabakhi defence officials. Since the start of the year, Nagorno Karabakh officials have registered a progressive monthly increase in recorded ceasefire violations by Azerbaijan, while the latter’s data shows no major increase, with recorded cases similarContinue Reading

On 11 January, several new military food warehouses were opened in Azerbaijan. According to a statement from Defence officials, several warehouses with a capacity of 500 tonnes of foodstuffs were inaugurated at unspecified locations in the country, with the Defence head, Zakir Hasanov, officially visiting at least one of theseContinue Reading

This week, after an apparent two -month pause in official visits to the frontline locations, Azeri Defence minister Zakir Hasanov visited military bases and installations along the north and south of the line-of-contact (LoC). On 4 December, Hasanov visited military positions near the Leletepe heights and a memorial to AzeriContinue Reading

On 22 October,  Armenian and Azeri Defence ministers, Davit Tonoyan and Zakir Hasanov, meet their Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, during their official visit to China for the 9th Beijing Xiangshan Forum. The event is held every one to two years and is aimed at strengthening cooperation and security between members ofContinue Reading

In October of 2018, a series of military drills took place in Nakhichevan aimed at coordinating operations between Nakhichevan’s local military with other militarised institutions in the planning of operations and the managing of personnel. A specialised radar system, the RP-10, was tested out during the drills, which is operableContinue Reading

Today, Azeri Defence minister Zakir Hasanov visited troops on the line-of-contact to mark the holiday of Kurban Bayram (Eng. Feast of Sacrifice) accompanied by several high-ranking officials from the ministry. The official source pointed out that Hasanov conversed with the troops, following up on different issues, after which he alsoContinue Reading