Military history of Azerbaijan

The Arabs made Caucasian Albania a vassal state after the Christian resistance, led by Prince Javanshir, surrendered in 667.

[10] The Shirvanshah established a native Azerbaijani state[11] and were rulers of Shirvan, a historical region in present-day Azerbaijan.

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.

After the decline of Abbasid Caliphate, the territory of Azerbaijan was under the sway of numerous dynasties such as the Salarids, Sajids, Shaddadids, Rawadids and Buyids.

However, at the beginning of the 11th century, the territory was gradually seized by waves of Oghuz Turkic tribes emanating from Central Asia.

They were followed by the Seljuqs, a western branch of the Oghuz who conquered all of Iran and the Caucasus and pressed on to Iraq where they overthrew the Buyids in Baghdad in 1055.

This Sufi order openly converted to the heterodox branch of Twelver Shi'a Islam by the end of the 15th century.

Some Safavid followers, most notably the Qizilbash Turks, believed in the mystical and esoteric nature of their rulers and their relationship to the house of Ali, and thus, were zealously predisposed to fight for them.

The Safavid rulers claimed to be the descendants of Ali himself and his wife Fatimah, daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, through the seventh Imam Musa al-Kazim.

Qizilbash numbers increased by the 16th century and their generals were able to wage a successful war against the Ak Koyunlu state and capture Tabriz.

The Russians dictated another final settlement as per the Treaty of Turkmenchay, which resulted in the Qajars of Persia ceding Caucasian territories in 1828.

By the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 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.

The German army was at first stalled in the mountains of Caucasus, then decisively defeated at the Battle of Stalingrad and forced to retreat.

It also hosted the 49th arsenal 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.

Thus, by the end of 1992, Azerbaijan received arms and military hardware sufficient for approximately four motorized rifle divisions with prescribed army units.

The Azerbaijani army employed Russian, Ukrainian, Chechen and Afghan mercenaries and was aided by Turkish military advisers during the war.

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.

[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.