Azerbaijan's drills "a response to Armenia's resolve not to cede land"

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijan is holding major military drills on March 11-15 but has not notified the relevant international organizations of such plans, Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan has said in a Facebook post.

Hovhhanisyan described the upcoming drills as "a pressure attempt" ahead of a possible meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and "in response to the declaration that Armenia is not going to cede territory from the liberated lands to Azerbaijan."

"Under the Vienna Document from 2011, notifications should be sent out on military drills if they involve at least 9,000 personnel, 250 tanks or 500 military armored vehicles or 250 self-propelled and towed artillery weapons, mortars and multiple rocket launchers," the spokesman said.

The Vienna Document is an agreement between the participating states of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe which was intended to implement confidence and security building measures. Under the document, the participating states exchange annually informationto provide transparency about their intentions in the medium to long term as regards size, structure, training and equipment of its armed forces, as well as defense policy, doctrines and budgets related thereto.The information is provided to all other participating states not later than three months after the military budget has been approved by the competent national authorities.

He further revealed that 10,000 personnel, up to 500 tanks and other armored vehicles, at least 300 artillery equipment of various caliber, grenade launchers, missiles and reactive volley-fire systems, as well as 20 military planes and helicopters are going to be involved in the Azerbaijani drills.