Another bluff by Ilham Aliyev

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry was silent for three days before it finally decided to say something about the incident in the Artsakh sky. Official Baku was so senseless as to announce that “Azerbaijan has no relation to the drone aircraft crashed on the territory of Nagorno Karabakh.” This sounds ridiculous and even naive – but what to do – this is typical of the Azerbaijani leadership. We remember Ilham Aliyev threatening to shoot down civilian aircraft that were to take off from the “Stepanakert” Airport. But the case of the UAV showed the true power of the “unconquerable” Azerbaijani army. It is good that this was only a UAV rather than a piloted aircraft, since Ilham Aliyev, following the example of his elder brother Erdogan, might as well accuse the Armenian side of “terror” and try to launch military action. The case of the shot down UAV can also be categorized as pure provocation for the outbreak of hostilities. But this time nothing happened. According to the press service of the NKR Defense Army, along with ceasefire violation, the Azerbaijani side is also actively engaged in combat-capable and reconnaissance flights. For the past few days Azerbaijani drones have been flying quite frequently along the contact line of Artsakh and Azerbaijani armed forces, often violating the Artsakh airspace. In the morning of September 12, at approximately 7:30 a.m. Artsakh armed forces shot down an Azeri drone aircraft exploring the territory of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) near the Village of Vazgenashen, Martuni Region. The remains of the drone are presently under investigation by Artsakh armed forces special service.

In his turn, Chief of Armenia's Air Defense Forces Nikolai Babayan said the shot down Azerbaijani drone was destroyed due to joint efforts of air defense forces and electronic warfare (EW). “From now on any planes and drones of the Azerbaijani armed forces that will attempt to violate the border will be shot down. It’s true that UAVs are difficult not only to shoot down but also to detect, since they are made of composite materials that are hardly traceable. However, this one was destroyed thanks to the air defence forces equipment engineered by the Armenian Military-Industrial Complex (MIC),” Babayan said.

In short, it all ended as it should. This incident best demonstrated the crisis the Azerbaijani army is currently experiencing. Later on it became clear that the shot down UAV was not the only one destroyed. Hence, the Azerbaijani leadership should weigh it for themselves whether it’s any use to spend millions of dollars on military “toys” that do not perform their “duties”. If some of the modern weapons are designed for the leadership to gain a foothold, then it is understandable. And, most apparently, this is the case.