I will not fight for Azerbaijan anymore, 41-year-old retired Colonel Azer Rustamov said in his interview with Azeri weekly Obozrevatel.net (1/7/05 and 1/14/05). “I do not wish to fight and others will not go either. They’ll prefer to trade in bazaars”, he continues. Azer Rustamov is a veteran of Afghanistan and Karabakh wars, who was decorated with Red Star soviet order as well as by both Elchibey and Aliyev governments. He recollects the battles in Karabakh in summer 1992. “About a hundred of Chechen volunteers headed by Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev helped us a lot. But suffering great losses they had to leave. Eventually Rustamov rose to the rank of full Colonel and commander of a brigade in Fizuli district (1999-2001). He resigned from the military in 2003. “If war breaks out now I am not sure whether I’ll fight. I witnessed the attitude showed towards the memory of the killed and those, who remained invalid after the war. The army, of course, will fight for a certain period. But what will happen when their depleted ranks would need to be replenished? Who will go if over two million people now work in Russia?” A. Rustamov also sibjects to criticism the foreign policy pursued by the leadership, which presumes unreasoned statements addressed to Russia. It is interesting that the Red Star order he received in the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan late last year. At present he is focused on formation of “Combat Brotherhood,” an NGO that would focus on veterans of Afghanistan and other wars.
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