Azerbaijan has dismissed claims from breakaway Karabakh that it would lose if hostilities were to be resumed over the territory.
"They make similar statements now and again, while they understand that the situation is totally different. They are seeking to calm internal anxiety with such senseless and absurd statements," Azerbaijani Defence Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu told an APA correspondent.
Serious shortcomings in Armenia itself and the military units in the occupied lands have caused great public anxiety and the Armenian government and military leadership are also concerned, Sabiroglu said.
“If you look at news sources in Armenia, you can see the proof of my words there. They are very anxious. They fear the development of the Azerbaijani army and the new weapons it has obtained. They have lost their peace of mind at the annual growth in Azerbaijan's military expenditure, ordered by Supreme Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev. This is the reason behind their senseless statements. Not only we, but also other states and influential international organizations acknowledge this."
His remarks come after unrecognized Karabakh's defence minister, Movses Hakobyan, told a press conference on 12 August that the Azerbaijani army would suffer another defeat if it attempted to end the conflict by force.
"In my view, if Azerbaijan thinks that it can solve the Artsakh [Karabakh] problem by military means, the resumption of hostilities will be possible,” Radio Liberty's Armenian Service reported Hakobyan as saying.
The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry spokesman countered that a recent report by a UK think-tank showed that the Azerbaijani army was ahead of the Armenian armed forces in all parameters. "Given the battle capability of the personnel, in the event of a new war Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenia in a short period of time is inevitable,” Sabiroglu said.
Movses Hakobyan said last week that the Karabakh army's potential had increased 20% since the introduction of a reform program in 2010.
"The program will be continuous and we will not allow the Azerbaijani army to leave us behind in the issue of arms," Hakobyan said, according to International Public Radio of Armenia.
He said that the Karabakh armed forces had acquired significant amounts of new weapons this year and would continue the military buildup in the months to come.
“During this period, the qualitative and quantitative state of our weapons and military hardware changed quite a lot,” Hakobyan told the news conference. "Quite serious reforms were carried out with the restructuring of two army brigades.
“We re-armed one artillery regiment with new systems. The anti-tank and air-defence means of a dozen battalions were enhanced. And this year we will receive more tanks — two more divisions — and some of the weaponry of the army’s air-defence system will be replaced.”
Hakobyan, who commanded some Karabakh Armenian units during the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan, gave no other details of the buildup, Radio Liberty's Armenian Service commented.
Armenia, whose armed forces are closely connected with the Karabakh military, is likely to be the main source of the arms acquisitions reported by him.
Claims and counter-claims of a victory in a renewed war for Karabakh are made by both sides from time to time.
The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1988 when Armenia made claims on the Azerbaijani territory. Armenian armed forces later occupied a swathe of Azerbaijani territory in a bitter war, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. Despite a ceasefire in 1994, no long-term peace agreement has been reached.
The nub of the conflict remains unresolved - the competing claims of territorial integrity, which Azerbaijan insists takes precedence in the case of Karabakh, and self-determination, which Armenia wants to see for the Armenians of Karabakh.
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