Two years ago, when the Azerbaijani army showed off their Czech Dana howitzers and Vampire rocket launchers in a promotional video, it attracted extraordinary media attention: the Czech Republic does not officially export military equipment to this country. The arms branch of the Czechoslovak Group immediately rushed to make an official statement that, in accordance with its license, it had exported only Tatra chassis. The Czech government also denied any involvement in the export of these howitzers and rocket launchers. But new findings from investigace.cz reporters show that the ministry knew from the start the chassis would be transformed into howitzers and rocket launchers, as well as about their export to Azerbaijan — flouting recommendations from the UN, EU, and OSCE. Leaked documents show that the final modifications of the chassis for combat were made in Slovakia by a company from the same holding that exported the chassis from the Czech Republic.
An “Inappropriate Situation”
In the autumn of 2017, there was a lengthy debate about the export of Czech military equipment: the media described Azerbaijan as embargoed, while arms producers argued that no international embargo was applicable. But what was the actual case? In 1992, Azerbaijan was embargoed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and subsequently by the UN because of the country’s war with Armenia in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Ten years later, the UN withdrew its embargo, but the non-binding OSCE embargo was never lifted.
This complicated conflict continues to this day, meaning that the official foreign policy of the Czech Republic does not allow the export of equipment such as howitzers to the area. Defense contractor the Czechoslovak Group even admits this and, according to an official statement, it “respects not only the official arms embargoes of the UN or the EU, but also the unofficial ones, because the foreign policy of the Czech Republic and its allies disallow export to countries that are not embargoed but where the export of military equipment is inappropriate for security reasons, for example.”
This is exactly the “inappropriate” situation that occurred when six Czech howitzers appeared in a promotional video clip posted by the Azerbaijani army.
