Azerbaijan Democratic Republic The history of the modern Azerbaijan army dates back to
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) in 1918, when the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan were created on 26 June 1918. First
de facto Minister of Defense of ADR was Dr.
Khosrov bey Sultanov. When the Ministry was formally established, Gen.
Samedbey Mehmandarov became the minister, and Lt-Gen.
Ali-Agha Shikhlinski his deputy. Chiefs of Staff of ADR Army were Lt-Gen.
Maciej Sulkiewicz (March 1919 – 10 December 1919) and Maj-Gen. Abdulhamid bey Gaitabashi (10 December 1919 – April 1920). The
Red Army invaded Azerbaijan on 28 April 1920. Although the bulk of the newly formed Azerbaijani army was engaged in putting down an Armenian revolt that had just broken out in
Karabakh, the Azerbaijanis did not surrender their brief independence of 1918–20 quickly or easily. As many as 20,000 of the total 30,000 soldiers died resisting what was effectively a Russian reconquest. The national Army of Azerbaijan was abolished by the Bolshevik government, 15 of the 21 army generals were executed by the Bolsheviks.
World War II during a parade in Baku in 1960 During
World War II, Azerbaijan played a crucial role in the strategic energy policy of Soviet Union. Much of the Soviet Union's oil on the
Eastern Front was supplied by Baku. By a decree of the
Supreme Soviet of the USSR in February 1942, the commitment of more than 500 workers and employees of the oil industry of Azerbaijan was recognised with orders and medals.
Operation Edelweiss carried out by the German
Wehrmacht targeted
Baku because of the importance of its oil fields to the USSR. Some 800,000 Azerbaijanis fought within the ranks of the Soviet Army of which 400,000 died. Azerbaijani national formations of the
Red Army included the
223rd,
227th,
396th,
402nd, and
416th Rifle Divisions. Azerbaijani Major-General
Hazi Aslanov was awarded a second
Hero of the Soviet Union after a long post-war fight for recognition of his accomplishments.
Dissolution of the Soviet armed forces During the Cold War, Azerbaijan had been the deployment area of units of the Soviet
4th Army whose principal formations in 1988 included four motor rifle divisions (
23rd Guards,
60th, 75th, and
295th). The
75th Motor Rifle Division was isolated in
Nakhchivan. The 4th Army also included missile and air defense brigades and artillery and rocket regiments. The 75th Division's stores and equipment were apparently transferred to the Nakhchivan authorities. Azerbaijan also hosted the 49th Arsenal of the Soviet
Main Agency of Missiles and Artillery, which contained over 7,000 train-car loads of ammunition to the excess of one billion units. The first president of Azerbaijan,
Ayaz Mutallibov, did not wish to build an independent army, wanting to rely instead largely on Soviet troops. Even when the Parliament decided that an army should be formed in September 1991, disagreements between the government and the opposition
Azerbaijani Popular Front Party impeded creation of a unified force. Around this time, the first unit of the new army was formed on the basis of the 18–110 military unit of
mechanized infantry of the
Soviet Ground Forces (probably part of the
4th Army) located in
Shikhov, south of Baku. At the time of the parliamentary decision, Lieutenant-General
Valeh Barshadli became the first
Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, from 5 September to 11 December 1991. Later from May to 4 September 1992 he served as
Chief of General Staff of Azerbaijani Armed Forces. saying
Newly formed military In summer 1992, the nascent Defense Ministry received a resolution by the Azerbaijani president on the takeover of units and formations in Azerbaijani territory. It then forwarded an ultimatum to Moscow demanding control over vehicles and armaments of the 135th and 139th Motor Rifle Regiments of the
295th Motor Rifle Division. In July 1992, Azerbaijan ratified the
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), which establishes comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment. The transfer of the property of the 4th Army (except for part of the property of the 366th Motor Rifle Regiment of the
23rd Guards Motor Rifle Division captured by Armenian armed formations in 1992 during the regiment's withdrawal from Stepanakert) and the 49th arsenal was completed in 1992. Thus, by the end of 1992, Azerbaijan received arms and military hardware sufficient for approximately four motor rifle divisions with prescribed army units. It also inherited naval ships. There are also reports that 50 combat aircraft from the disbanded
19th Army of the
Soviet Air Defence Forces came under Azerbaijani control. “Full-fledged work on the creation of a national army in Azerbaijan began only in November 1993, when the ..situation.. began to stabilize.” Articles for draft evasion and desertion were introduced. The Azerbaijani armed forces took a series of devastating defeats by Armenian forces during the 1992–1994
Nagorno-Karabakh War, which resulted in the loss of control of Nagorno-Karabakh proper and seven surrounding
rayons, comprising roughly 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani sources insist that Armenian victory was largely due to military help from Russia and the wealthy
Armenian diaspora. Armenians partially deny the allegation, claiming that Russian side was equally supplying Armenian and Azerbaijani sides with weapons and mercenaries. During the war, the Azerbaijani armed forces were also aided by Turkish military advisers, and Russian, Ukrainian, Chechen and Afghan mercenaries. Azerbaijan approved the CFE flank agreement in May 1997.
21st century A number of Azerbaijani human rights groups have been tracking non-combat deaths and have noted an upward trend in the early 2010s. Based on Defense Ministry statistics that had not been released to the public, the Group of Monitoring Compliance with Human Rights in the Army (GMCHRA) has recorded the deaths of 76 soldiers to date in non-combat incidents for 2011, and the injury of 91 others. In comparison, there were 62 non-combat deaths and 71 cases of injury in 2010. The string of non-combat deaths raises questions about the reform progress of the military. Factors behind the deaths include bullying, hazing, and the systemic corruption within the Azerbaijani Armed Forces (see
Corruption in Azerbaijan). In 2017, Azerbaijani authorities used large scale torture (the
Tartar Case) on Azerbaijani military personnel accused of treason. Generals Nacmeddin Sadikhov and Hikmet Hasanov were accused of torturing Azerbaijani officers and soldiers and according to the authorities and human rights defenders, more than 400 people were subjected to torture in the course of the case. The Azerbaijani authorities claimed one person was killed as a result, while human rights defenders say the number is about 13, and many were wrongfully convicted and given hefty prison sentences.
Second Karabakh War The
Second Karabakh War (also known in Azerbaijan as "The Patriotic War" or "Operation Iron Fist") began on the morning of 27 September 2020 when Azerbaijan launched an offensive along the Line of Contact. On the seventh day of the war, a major offensive was launched by the ground forces, advancing in the north, making some territorial gains while the fighting gradually shifted to the south. Following
the capture of
Shusha, the second-largest settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh, by Azerbaijani forces, a
ceasefire agreement was signed between Azerbaijan, and Armenia, ending all hostilities in the area. Under the agreement, Armenia returned the surrounding territories it occupied in 1994 to Azerbaijan while Azerbaijan gained land access to its
Nakhchivan exclave. Total casualties were in the low thousands. During the war, the Azerbaijani army was widely accused of committing war crimes against Armenian soldiers and civilians.
Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International both condemned Azerbaijan's “indiscriminate” shelling of Armenian civilians, including the use of
cluster munitions. In addition, videos of Azerbaijani soldiers mistreating or executing captive Armenians were circulated online and received widespread condemnation. On 10 December, a
victory parade was held in honor of the Azerbaijani Army on
Azadliq Square, with 3,000 soldiers marching alongside military equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft. In August 2022, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed deep concern regarding "severe and grave human rights violations committed during 2020 hostilities and beyond by the Azerbaijani military forces against prisoners of war and other protected persons of Armenian ethnic or national origin, including extrajudicial killings, torture and other ill-treatment and arbitrary detention as well as the destruction of houses, schools, and other civilian facilities." == Structure ==