“GEGHARD”
SCIENTIFIC ANALYTICAL
FOUNDATION
2025
2025
On April 22, 2025, the head of the Khazar District Department of the State Service for Mobilization and Conscription (SSMC) in Azerbaijan was arrested for three months on charges of corruption. Earlier, the General Directorate for Combating Corruption under the Prosecutor General had imposed house arrest on Ramin Shukurov as a preventive measure. Along with him, the head of the conscription division and one of the officers of the same department were dismissed from their positions and arrested. On April 3, the head of the SSMC’s Shushi Department, Colonel Seymur Gurbanov, was also sentenced to four years in prison. He was charged under several articles, including fraud, abuse of official authority, bribery, and others.
In the same period, Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office released information on corruption crimes committed by the State Service for Mobilization and Conscription (SSMC) since May 2023. It was revealed that 36 individuals deemed unfit for military service had been conscripted, while 26 others, who had no health issues, were falsely classified as unfit. Additionally, 12 individuals avoided service using forged documents. As a result of operational and investigative measures, criminal cases have been initiated, and several individuals have been arrested, including SSMC officials.
The Prosecutor General's Office has also confirmed the involvement of 157 doctors from the Ministry of Health and the Territorial Medical Departments in illegal activities during the mobilization process, recommending a review of the composition of medical examination commissions. In 2023, 78 individuals from the Military Medical Commission were held accountable, and materials concerning 22 individuals in connection with 15 incidents were sent to the prosecutor's office. In 2024, 95 individuals were held accountable in connection with 51 incidents, while in the first quarter of 2025, the number of those held accountable reached 39.
In November 2024, as a result of internal investigations conducted in the Nasimi District Department and the Goranboy District Branch of Azerbaijan’s Military Medical Commission (ZƏZPÇ), 9 employees were subjected to severe disciplinary action. Three employees who had demanded bribes from citizens were dismissed, and the materials concerning them were submitted to the Prosecutor General’s Office. Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office had previously conducted similar investigations in the Lachin (Berdzor) and Jalilabad district branches of the Commission, and the head of the Khachmaz district branch was arrested.
In line with the measures aimed at implementing the requirements of the presidential decree on “National Action Plan to Strengthen the Fight Against Corruption, 2022-2026” large-scale operations have been carried out since May 2023 to uncover corruption cases in the structures responsible for the mobilization and conscription process in Azerbaijan.
Several international organizations, including the European Court of Human Rights, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, and others, have also raised concerns about the shadow economy in Azerbaijan and various forms of corruption within its armed forces and mobilization processes.
Azerbaijan has also faced criticism for failing to fulfill several of its commitments. For example, the introduction of an alternative military service system, which was supposed to be implemented by 2003, was a commitment Azerbaijan undertook back in 2001 upon joining the Council of Europe. However, discussions around a draft law on the matter began in 2023–2024.
Instead, the Aliyev regie has adopted a strategy of selectively exposing corruption entrenched in the armed forces and mobilization process, and giving publicity to individual cases to mitigate criticism directed at Baku. At the same time, numerous violations, directly related to the activities of mobilization and conscription commissions, are being concealed.
According to Azerbaijan’s Constitution, if a citizen’s beliefs conflict with military service, alternative service is permitted by law in certain cases. However, in the absence of a specific law regulating this right, employees of the State Service for Mobilization and Conscription have repeatedly punished, imprisoned, or fined Jehovah’s Witnesses and members of other religious groups who refused mandatory military service, they were forcibly conscripted or prohibited from leaving the country. In contrast, numerous conscripts have been exempted from military service using falsified documents claiming they were receiving education abroad. In 2021, the head of the Sabunchu District Department of the SSMC and several other employees were criminally prosecuted for repeatedly accepting bribes and committing this offense. Between 2016 and 2019, they and the medical staff at the Baku city hospital issued fraudulent documents declaring 11 individuals unfit for military service.
Criminal proceedings were initiated against Nazilya Rahmanova, the head of the medical commission of the Surakhani branch of the State Service for Mobilization and Conscription and a doctor at a Baku hospital, on charges of issuing false medical certificates and conclusions, as well as accepting bribes.
In effect, all professional structures involved in Azerbaijan’s mobilization and conscription processes employ coordinated methods aimed at forcibly drafting individuals deemed unfit for service. Conversely, those fit for military duty are often released in exchange for bribes, to assigning them to “safer locations” or internal troops.
Such practices are characteristic of post-Soviet states and are considered a continuation of the Soviet-era “military commissariat” tradition. Even soldiers who served on the front lines have described military commissars as “sons of bribed fathers, a disgrace to the armed forces, lacking any experience in combat operations or military leadership,” and similar terms.
Reforms aimed at overhauling the traditional “military commissariats” in Azerbaijan were originally scheduled to begin as early as 2005. The establishment of a unified conscription agency was one of the requirements under the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) implemented in cooperation with NATO. However, by the time the program concluded in 2011, the agency had still not been established.
As of 2010, among the numerous problems uncovered in Azerbaijan’s armed forces were issues related to the social and housing conditions of military personnel, a lack of expertise among the leadership, the slow pace of reforms, embezzlement, and low levels of military discipline. Notably, the latter was regarded as a key factor behind non-statutory relations in the army, criminal offenses, and the deaths of servicemen in non-combat situations. It was also emphasized that the process of aligning with NATO standards remained largely superficial.
In 2012, following the adoption of a new military doctrine, Azerbaijan launched structural reforms in its armed forces, marked by a significant increase in the defense budget. The subdivisions of the State Service for Mobilization and Conscription were established. The agency was granted authority over several key areas, including military-patriotic education of youth, pre-conscription training, the provision of human resources for the armed forces, and efforts to combat corruption.
Despite the reforms undertaken, reports in subsequent years have indicated that corruption and other criminal practices within the Azerbaijani army have not been eliminated. Budgetary funds have been spent inefficiently.
In 2023, even the President of Azerbaijan acknowledged that corruption and various other issues persist within the mobilization and conscription processes. This statement is particularly notable given that, in the past, Azerbaijan consistently blamed all internal negative phenomena on Armenia, portraying it as the "occupying country of Azerbaijani territories", a false narrative promoted by Azerbaijan. Corruption in Azerbaijan’s mobilization and conscription system has had a systemic and organized character, carried out under the supervision and with the approval of corrupt authorities.