auto-update week 39

middle-east/aj.json

@@ -1220,7 +1220,7 @@
       "note": "<strong>note:</strong> most of the military is made up of professional contract soldiers; as of 2018, women made up an estimated 3% of the active duty military"
     },
     "Military - note": {
-      "text": "the Azerbaijani military was established in 1991, although its origins go back to 1918; much of the military’s original equipment was acquired from former Soviet military forces that left Azerbaijan by 1992; territorial defense is the military’s primary focus, particularly with regards to neighboring Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region; a secondary focus is guarding against Iran; the Ground Forces have five army corps and an independent combined arms army in the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxicvan (Nakhichevan); four of the army corps are deployed around Nagorno-Karabakh (one corps also has units deployed along the Iranian border) while the fifth is responsible for the defense of the capital Baku;  between them, the corps and the combined arms army have more than 20 mechanized or motorized combat brigades; the Ground Forces also have separate brigades of artillery, battlefield rockets, and special forces; the Air Force has about 30 Russian-origin fighters and ground attack aircraft, as well as some combat helicopters; the Navy patrols the Caspian Sea with a corvette and several coastal patrol craft<br><br>Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in open conflicts over Nagorno-Karabakh in 1991-94 and 2020, plus a brief flare-up in 2016; six weeks of fighting in September-November 2020 resulted in Azerbaijan seizing control over much of the territory it lost to Armenian and Nargorno-Karabakh forces in the 1990s, including a portion of Nagorno-Karabakh and almost all of the surrounding territories; in November 2020, Russia deployed about 2,000 peacekeeping troops in and around Nagorno-Karabakh as part of a Russian-brokered cease-fire agreement, which required Armenia to withdraw its military forces from Nagorno-Karabakh; Armenia claimed this withdrawal was completed as of August 2022; nevertheless, tensions remain high, with Azerbaijan accusing Armenia of secretly continuing to provide weapons, supplies, and troops to Nagorno-Karabakh; cease-fire violations across the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and the line of contact between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan occur regularly; since 2021, a series of small scale clashes also have occurred between Armenia and Azerbaijan along their border; in addition, Armenia has accused Azerbaijani forces of multiple border intrusions and seizing parts of sovereign Armenian territory<br><br>Turkey is Azerbaijan’s strongest military partner, a relationship that has included weapons transfers, technical advice, bilateral training exercises, and key support during the 2020 conflict with Armenia; military reforms over the past decade and the operations of the Azerbaijani forces during the 2020 conflict reflected Turkish influence; Azerbaijan is not part of NATO but has had a cooperative relationship with it dating back to when it joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program in 1994 and has provided troops to NATO-led missions in Kosovo (1999-2008) and Afghanistan (2002-2014) (2023)"
+      "text": "the Azerbaijani military was established in 1991, although its origins go back to 1918; much of the military’s original equipment was acquired from former Soviet military forces that left Azerbaijan by 1992; territorial defense is the military’s primary focus, particularly with regards to neighboring Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region; a secondary focus is guarding against Iran; the Ground Forces have five army corps, plus an independent combined arms army, which is assigned to the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxicvan (Nakhichevan); between them, the corps and the combined arms army have more than 20 mechanized or motorized combat brigades; the Ground Forces also have separate brigades of artillery, battlefield rockets, and special forces; the Air Force has about 30 Russian-origin fighters and ground attack aircraft, as well as some combat helicopters; the Navy patrols the Caspian Sea with a corvette and several coastal patrol craft<br><br>Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in open conflicts over Nagorno-Karabakh in 1991-94 and 2020, plus a brief flare-up in 2016; tensions continued following the 2020 conflict; Azerbaijan seized the entire enclave in 2023 <br><br>Turkey is Azerbaijan’s strongest military partner, a relationship that has included weapons transfers, technical advice, bilateral training exercises, and key support during the 2020 conflict with Armenia; military reforms over the past decade and the operations of the Azerbaijani forces during the 2020 conflict reflected Turkish influence; Azerbaijan is not part of NATO but has had a cooperative relationship with it dating back to when it joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program in 1994 and has provided troops to NATO-led missions in Kosovo (1999-2008) and Afghanistan (2002-2014) (2023)"
     }
   },
   "Space": {