The guy who talks has no idea. Azerbaijan's defence budget is $4.4-5 billion, here:
Azerbaijan Business Center -
Morover, Azerbaijan is an oil producing country with considerable revenues.
The Azerbaijani Armed Forces (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Silahlı Qüvvələri) were re-established according to the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the Armed Forces from 9 October 1991.[5] The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) had originally formed its own armed forces from 26 June 1918. However these were dissolved after Azerbaijan was absorbed into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 28 April 1920. After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991-92 the armed forces were reformed based on Soviet bases and equipment left on Azeri soil.
The armed forces have three branches: the Azerbaijani Land Forces, the Azerbaijani Air and Air Defence Force, and the Azerbaijani Navy.[6] Associated forces include the Azerbaijani National Guard, the Internal Troops of Azerbaijan, and the State Border Service, which can be involved in state defense under certain circumstances.
According to the Azerbaijani media sources the military expenditures of Azerbaijan for 2009 were set at $2.46 billion USD,[7] however according to SIPRI, only $1.473 billion was spent in that year.[8] IISS also suggests that the defence budget in 2009 was $1.5 billion.[1] Azerbaijan has its own Defense Industry, which manufactures small arms. In the future, Azerbaijan hopes to start building tanks, armored vehicles, military planes and military helicopters.[9
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has been trying to further develop its armed forces into a professional, well trained, and mobile military. Azerbaijan has been undergoing extensive modernization and capacity expanding programs, with the military budget increasing from around $300 million in 2005 to $2.46 billion in 2009.[11] The total armed forces number 56,840 men in the land forces, 7,900 men in the air force and air defence force, and 2,200 men in the navy.[1] There are also 19,500 personnel in the National Guard, State Border Service, and Internal Troops.[12] In addition, there are 300,000 former service personnel who have had military service in the last 15 years.[2] The military hardware of Azerbaijan consists of 220 main battle tanks, an additional 162 T-80's were acquired between 2005 and 2010,[13] 595 armored combat vehicles and 270 artillery systems. The air force has about 106 aircraft and 35 helicopters.[14]
Azerbaijan has acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapons state. Azerbaijan participates in NATO's Partnership for Peace. Azerbaijan joined the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq in 2003. It sent 150 troops to Iraq, and later troops to Kosovo. Azeri troops are still serving in Afghanistan.
Despite the rise in Azerbaijan's defence budget, which now doubles Armenia's entire state budget,[15] the armed forces were assessed in 2008 as not having a high state of battle readiness and being ill-prepared for wide scale combat operations.[16]
Today 'National Hero of Azerbaijan' is the highest national title in the country, awarded for outstanding services of national importance to Azerbaijan in defense, as well as other deeds in other spheres.
Are you a troll? Seriously...
Resort to calling names it really shows your intelligence level.
From the very beginning of its existence as a post-Soviet independent republic, Azerbaijan faced a single compelling national security issue: its enduring struggle with Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding territory. The withdrawal of Russian troops and mat�riel left an Azerbaijani army ill-equipped and poorly disciplined. Government efforts to build a new national defense force achieved only limited results, and Armenian forces continued to advance into Azerbaijani territory during most of 1993. By the end of that year, the Aliyev regime had bolstered some components of the Azerbaijani military, however.
Even before the formal breakup of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, Azerbaijan had created its own Ministry of Defense and a Defense Council to advise the president on national security policy. The national armed forces of Azerbaijan were formed by presidential decree in October 1991.
Beginning in 1991, Azerbaijan's external national security was breached by the incursion of the Armenian separatist forces of Karabakh militias and reinforcements from Armenia. Azerbaijan's main strategy in this early period was to blockade landlocked Armenia's supply lines and to rely for national defense on the Russian 4th Army, which remained in Azerbaijan in 1991. Clashes between Russian troops and Azerbaijani civilians in 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, led Russia to a rapid commitment for withdrawal of troops and equipment, which was completed in mid-1993.
Under those circumstances, a new, limited national armed force was planned in 1992, and, as had been done in Armenia, the government appealed to Azerbaijani veterans of the Soviet army to defend their homeland. But the force took shape slowly, and outside assistance--mercenaries and foreign training officers-- were summoned to stem the Armenian advance that threatened all of southern Azerbaijan. In 1993 continued military failures brought reports of mass desertion and subsequent large-scale recruitment of teenage boys, as well as wholesale changes in the national defense establishment.
In the early 1990s, the domestic and international confusion bred by the Karabakh conflict increased customs violations, white-collar crime, and threats to the populace by criminal bands. The role of Azerbaijanis in the international drug market expanded noticeably. In 1993 the Aliyev government responded to these problems with a major reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which had been plagued by corruption and incompetence, but experts agreed that positive results required a more stable overall atmosphere.
In December 1993, Azerbaijan launched a major surprise attack on all fronts in Karabakh, using newly drafted personnel in wave attacks, with air support. The attack initially overwhelmed Armenian positions in the north and south but ultimately was unsuccessful. An estimated 8,000 Azerbaijani troops died in the two-month campaign, which Armenian authorities described as Azerbaijan's best-planned offensive of the conflict.
Azerbaijan reportedly receives weapons of uncertain origin from various Islamic nations to assist in the struggle to retain Nagorno-Karabakh. In late 1993, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made an official report to the CSCE on the weapons at Azerbaijan's disposal, fulfilling the requirement of the 1991 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty. According to this report, during 1992 and 1993 Azerbaijan received more than 1,700 weapons--including tanks, armored personnel carriers, aircraft, artillery systems, and helicopters--from Russia and Ukraine, far above the CFE Treaty limits. According to IMF and Azerbaijani government data, defense expenditures placed a severe burden on the national budget. In 1992 some US$125 million, or 10.5 percent of the total budget, went to defense. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict also raised expenses for internal security to 4 billion rubles in 1992. By 1994 military expenditures officially reached US$132 million, although unofficial estimates were much higher.
By 2004 the active armed forces included 66,490 personnel. The forces remain conscript-based and comprised three arms of service: ground forces, joint air force and air defense forces, and navy, as well as a reserve base.
Ministry of Defense