Azerbaijan celebrates Navy Day

The day of the Navy is celebrated in Azerbaijan.

Navy of Azerbaijan began to form after the British left Azerbaijan in August 1919.

Until that time, the defense of the western shores of the Caspian Sea was provided by the English warships. And the ships of the Caspian Navy were stolen to Port Petrovsk during the liberation of Baku and returned only after the British arrived in Baku in November 1918.

In the newly created Azerbaijani Navy, there were only two Azerbaijanis among the high-ranking officers-the captain of the Marine Service Hasan Chinchade, who served on the Ardakhan ship, and the 1st rank captain, who served on the Astrabad ship. Since the military ministry did not have a department in the fleet, the Ministry of Transport was engaged in the Caspian Navy.

At the end of 1919, a special naval department with 6 staffing units was created at the General Staff. In general, the Azerbaijani Caspian Navy included two gunboats equipped with 75, 100 and 120 millimeter guns – “Ardakhan” and “Kars”, official and auxiliary vessels “Astrabad”, “Hyotepe”, “Araz”, “Nargen” “, Transport ship” Eagle “, a military ship” Pushkin “, as well as the boats in the required quantity.

In order to train personnel for the Navy on the basis of the Baku Naval Aviation School, a special naval aviation school was created, and on October 14, 1919 a naval aviation unit was created.

In order to improve technical equipment in the memorandum presented at the Paris Peace Conference, there was an appeal for assisting in the equipment of the fleet by submarines, ammunition in the required quantities and other necessary means, and an application for the supply of 6 submarines, combat boats of various types, combat boats were submitted. Marine artillery weapons. In connection with the fall of the Azerbaijan People’s Republic in 1920, the creation of a strong navy was impossible.

After the restoration of independence, the Parliament of the Azerbaijan Republic adopted the Law “On the Armed Forces of the Azerbaijan Republic” on October 9, 1991, which established the legal basis for the creation of the naval forces as part of the armed forces. According to the agreement between the independence of the former republics of the USSR – Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, all the bases of the Caspian Navy, located on its territory, as well as 25 percent of the warships of the fleet, moved to Azerbaijan as Caspian states.