According to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, some of the most significant arms purchases in the former Soviet Union in 2010 were made by Armenia and Azerbaijan, and both bought from the same store.
While Russia made headlines with the purchase of four Mistral-class helicopter carriers from France this year and the deployment of Russian S-300 anti-aircraft systems throughout the Caucasus rattled several of the region's goverments, the sale of small arms went largely unnoticed by the international media.
Joshua Kucera wrote in his blog, The Bug Pit, August 8, that every country is supposed to report any import or export of arms to the UN, but many report their transactions late or not at all -- Georgia, for instance, hasn't filed a report since 2007. Still, he said, some of the report's contents were interesting, including Ukraine's decision to engage in the "time-honored tradition of selling weapons to both sides of a conflict."
According to the UN report, which Kucera cited, Azerbaijan bought 71 armored combat vehicles, seven 122mm artillery pieces, an Mi-24R attack helicopter, and a mobile anti-tank missile launcher from Ukraine. Ukraine also sold them 3,000 submachine guns in 2010.
Armenia, for its part, bought up 230 pistols, 60 rifles and carbines, 16,500 submachine guns, 2,501 light machine guns, and two L-39 training aircraft, Kucera said.
Tajikistan several made small-arms purchases from Bulgaria and Serbia reportedly to up its fight against local islamist insurgents, but its arms-shopping pales in comparison to the amount of hardware amassed by Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to the UN report, Tajikistan bought 496 rifles and submachine guns of various types, 325 light and heavy machine guns, 200 handheld grenade launchers and six 60mm mortars.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have traded verbal barbs throughout the summer as peace talks have failed to bring resolution to their nearly 20-year-old dispute over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. International monitoring organizations have said that the risk of all-out war between the two sides is growing
