Beggar Ministry of the Wealthy Country

"The military budget of Azerbaijan is larger than the Armenian state budget".

You have probably heard these words from the head of state and on TV channels.  Since I like analogies, I will offer one here as well.  It looks as if “Papa’s Son”, who became rich after the event, is bragging about his wealth.  You have a large budget, but what is it allocated for though? With Zahid Oruj in mind, have you returned those 200 meters of land? Of course not. Had you done so, AzTV would have been talking about it every day. Anyhow, I digress…

   

For four years now, SOCAR has been donating 2% of its employees’ salaries to the Assistance Fund of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan. According to the calculations of independent NGOs who monitor this, that amount is approximately 9 million AZN per month.  This is no small amount.  So, it is unclear why the ministry is bragging about its money in front of other countries?  In other words, why is it acting like an uncouth beggar?  If the armed forces really needed this money, the state or the oil fund could easily meet such a request.  Therefore, demanding “then what does it want from us – oilers?” I appealed to the leadership as follows:

"I would like to state that I refuse to pay my “voluntary” donation of 2% from my monthly salary to the Fund of the Armed Forces. My considered reasoning is that the Ministry of Defense budget, which is higher than the overall budget of a close proximity “hostile” country, should not need such a small amount from the salary of an ordinary employee. Therefore, taking the aforementioned reason into consideration, I would ask you to cancel the 2% donation from my salary to the Fund of the Armed Forces.”

And yes! After this appeal they stopped taking donations from my salary. Since this donation is named voluntary, why would they not?  And here’s the thing – the donation to the Fund of the Armed Forces is designated as being voluntary, but yet nobody pays it with any enthusiasm in SOCAR. But for some reason, people do not protest against this payment and afford it an unwarranted “compulsory” character. As far as I understand, this payment is not taken by force, but ordinary oilers do not pay this donation voluntarily either. Many have the impression that they will face artificial obstacles at work and maybe even fired if they protest against this payment.  However, from personal experience, it becomes clear that this is built on nothing more than fear alone – and fear ultimately is an emotion to be found in one’s own hands.  I am now personally free from this fear, since I have paid one of the two debts to my Motherlands by serving in the army for three years.  My second debt is the fight for the territorial integrity of our country.  And yet I understand the fear of “men” who illegally evade military service and work at SOCAR.  Their tongue can for sure be short.  But what about the others?!  Talking of military service, as far as I know and according to unofficial sources, 35% of SOCAR employees are fully healthy and therefore eligible, yet they evade military service.  This will be the topic of our next post.