Azerbaijani political analysts are calling on law enforcement agencies to take measures to put an end to the cases of the country's citizens signing contracts with the Russian army and participating in the war against Ukraine.
According to information from Medianews.az, political analyst Shahin Jafarli writes on his Facebook account:
“Azerbaijan's security agencies must absolutely prevent the recruitment carried out in our country for Russia's aggressive war.
It is particularly tragic that our veterans and reserve officers sign contracts with the Russian army, participate in crimes against Ukrainians, and die there. Of course, this problem is not limited only to the security aspect. There are also social-economic and political-propaganda sides to the issue.
First of all, unemployed, poor, and socially underprivileged men, including veterans, when looking for additional sources of income, encounter networks recruiting soldiers for the Russian army and become attracted by the payment given when signing a contract there. In the near future, there is not only no likelihood of eliminating the socio-economic crisis in Azerbaijan and improving the population's welfare level, but it is known that the situation will worsen. This causes people to turn their attention to income opportunities abroad — and it will continue. The responsibility for this problem lies not with the security system but with the political leadership.
Secondly, very unfortunately, although Azerbaijani media, especially television channels, give considerable coverage to the Ukraine topic, they pay little attention to the criminal nature and moral depravity of the war waged by Russia. On the contrary, views that unjustly defend the attacked side, cover Russia mostly covertly, and sometimes openly justify it are given space. There are also some commentators who, even if they do not actually support Russia, by irresponsibly targeting only Ukraine's leadership, President Zelensky — that is, the victim — indirectly contribute to Russia's propaganda. This also contributes to pro-Russian sentiments in Azerbaijani society and creates the belief that fighting on Russia's side is not a bad or shameful thing.
On the other hand, TV channels do not adequately convey to viewers the harshness of the war and the reality of the heavy losses suffered by the sides. If everyone knew and understood that soldiers' lives on the front line are very short, especially that Russia loses 1,000–1,500 soldiers daily and that many of their bodies are not found and are torn apart by drones, the enthusiasm for participating in that war as mercenaries would probably decrease.”
Political analyst Elkhan Shahinoglu also commented on this issue on his Facebook account. He wrote:
“The number of Azerbaijanis who have died in Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine is increasing. It has come to the point where a veteran who fought for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan went to Russia, joined the occupying state's army under a contract, and died in battle.
In this war, Russia is no different from Armenia. Armenia was an occupier, and Russia is an occupier. It turns out that our fighter fighting against an occupier joined the occupier in another war. This is no different than joining terrorists in Syria and violating Azerbaijani laws at that time. Those who returned from Syria were held criminally liable. So what about those participating in Russia's aggressive war in Ukraine with Azerbaijani passports? Are they held criminally liable? If those people are not punished, the number of Azerbaijanis joining the Russian army will not decrease. The Kremlin will continue to send non-Russians, including Azerbaijanis, to death with enticing contract offers.
An Azerbaijani who is a Russian citizen participating in the war against Ukraine on a contract basis is their own business, although this is also not correct. Then there is the Azerbaijani migrant living in Russia participating in the occupying war. There has been increased information about Azerbaijanis taken prisoner by the Ukrainian army as well. Relevant Azerbaijani government structures should consider preventing these cases.”
