The military history of Azerbaijan is framed within thousands of years of armed actions of many other states in the territory encompassing modern Azerbaijan, as well as the shorter history of interventions by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in conflicts abroad. The Azerbaijanis are the inheritors of the lands of various ancient civilizations and peoples including the indigenous Caucasian Albanians, Iranian tribes such as Scythians and Alans, and Oghuz Turks among others (note that several modern peoples of the Caucasus can trace their ancestries to more than one of these same ancient peoples).
Azerbaijan's location on the crossroads of Asia and Europe made it possible for Azerbaijanis to have military contact with both the Asian and European military powers.
Arabic origin.[10] The Shirvanshah established a native Azerbaijani state[11] and were rulers of Shirvan, a historical region in present-day Azerbaijan
. The Shirvanshahs established the longest Islamic dynasty in the Islamic world.
Seljuqs and successor states
Main article:
Seljuq dynasty
The
Seljuq
period of Azerbaijan's history was possibly even more pivotal than the Arab conquest as it helped shape the ethnolinguistic nationality of the modern Azerbaijani Turks.
in 1813, which acknowledged the loss of the territory to Russia. Local khanates were either abolished (like in Baku or Ganja) or accepted Russian patronage.
Among the important accomplishments of the Parliament of the newly formed democratic republic was the extension of suffrage to women, making Azerbaijan the first Muslim state in the world to give women equal political rights with men. In this accomplishment, Azerbaijan preceded even such developed countries as the United Kingdom and the United States. Another important accomplishment of ADR was the establishment of Baku State University, which was the first modern-type university founded in Azerbaijan.
The Red Army invaded Azerbaijan on April 28, 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.[14] The national Army of Azerbaijan was abolished by the Bolshevik government, 15 of the 21 army generals were executed by the Bolsheviks.[12]
Navy
The Azerbaijani Navy was established in 1918. When the Russian Empire collapsed, ADR inherited the entire Russian Caspian flotilla. Among the vessels of the ADR were the gunboats Kars, Ardahan, Astrabad, Geok-Tepe, Arax and Bailov. The British also handed over a warship to the newly independent Azerbaijan – a former Russian vessel in the Caspian Sea.[15]
in February 1942, the commitment of more than 500 workers and employees of the oil industry of Azerbaijan was awarded orders and medals.
Operation Edelweiss carried out by the German Wehrmacht targeted Baku because of its importance as a petroleum supplier of the USSR.[16]
Some 800,000 Azerbaijanis fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army, 400,000 of whom perished in the war. Azerbaijani Major-General Hazi Aslanov was twice awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union. National military formations of the Red Army were formed in all republics, including Azerbaijan. The following Azerbaijani national units were created during the war:[17][18]
27th Mountain Division
77th Mountain Rifle Division named for Sergo Ordzhonikidze
87 battalions and 1123 self-defense squads were also created in the territory of the Azerbaijan SSR.
Mobilization affected all spheres of life. The oil workers extended their work to 12-hour shifts, with no days off, no holidays, and no vacations until the end of the war. Baku became the primary strategic goal of Hitler's 1942
Fall Blau offensive. The German army was at first stalled in the mountains of Caucasus, then decisively defeated at the Battle of Stalingrad
and forced to retreat.
Similarly to other peoples of the Caucasus, some Azerbaijanis joined the German side. These units included:
In summer 1992, the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan, following a resolution by the Azerbaijani president on the privatization of units and formations in Azerbaijani territory, forwarded an ultimatum demanding control over vehicles and armaments of the 135th and 139th motorized rifle regiments of the 295th Motor Rifle Division.[21]
Azerbaijan had been the deployment area of units of the
Main Agency of Missiles and Artillery of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
, which contained over 7,000 train-car loads of ammunition to the excess of one billion units. The transfer of the property of the 4th Army (except for part of the property of the 366th motorized rifle regiment of the 23rd 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 motorized rifle divisions with prescribed army units. It also inherited 50 combat aircraft from the disbanded 19th Air Defense Army and naval ships.
The Azerbaijani army suffered a series of significant defeats to Armenia[22] during the 1992–1994 First Nagorno-Karabakh War, which resulted in the loss of control of Nagorno-Karabakh proper and seven surrounding raions, comprising 16%[23] of the territory of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani sources claim[citation needed] that Armenian victory was largely due to military help from Russia and the wealthy Armenian diaspora, while Armenians partially deny the allegation, stating that Russia was equally supplying Armenian and Azerbaijani sides with weapons and mercenaries. The Azerbaijani army employed Russian, Ukrainian, Chechen and Afghan mercenaries and was aided by Turkish military advisers during the war.
21st century
The Azerbaijani Armed Forces were re-established on October 9, 1991, in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan.[24] Initially, the equipment and facilities of Azerbaijan's army were those of the 4th Army (Soviet Union). 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. Since 2005 Azerbaijan has increased its military budget to $2.46 billion in 2009.[25]
Azerbaijan has its own
defense industry, which manufactures small arms and military aircraft.[26][27][28] There are hopes to produce other military equipment.[29]
Clashes began on the morning of 27 September 2020 along the Line of Contact. Total casualties were in the low thousands.[30] 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.[31] Under the agreement, Armenia returned the surrounding territories it occupied in 1994 to Azerbaijan while Azerbaijan gained land access to its Nakhchivan exclave.[32]
^Strabo, "Geography" – Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University (retrieved 24 June 2006).
^Encyclopædia Britannica:The list of provinces given in the inscription of Ka'be-ye Zardusht defines the extent of the gigantic empire under Shapur, in clockwise geographic enumeration: (1) Persis (Fars), (2) Parthia, (3) Susiana (Khuzestan), (4) Maishan (Mesene), (5) Asuristan (southern Mesopotamia), (6) Adiabene, (7) Arabistan (northern Mesopotamia), (8) Atropatene (Azerbaijan), (9) Armenia, (10) Iberia (Georgia), (11) Machelonia, (12) Albania (eastern Caucasus), (13) Balasagan up to the Caucasus Mountains and the Gate of Albania (also known as Gate of the Alans), (14) Patishkhwagar (all of the Elburz Mountains), (15) Media, (16) Hyrcania (Gorgan), (17) Margiana (Merv), (18) Aria, (19) Abarshahr, (20) Carmania (Kerman), (21) Sakastan (Sistan), (22) Turan, (23) Mokran (Makran), (24) Paratan (Paradene), (25) India (probably restricted to the Indus River delta area), (26) Kushanshahr, until as far as Peshawar and until Kashgar and (the borders of) Sogdiana and Tashkent, and (27), on the farther side of the sea, Mazun (Oman)
^ abcdBarthold, W., C.E. Bosworth "Shirwan Shah, Sharwan Shah. "Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2nd edition