- State affiliation · Azerbaijan
- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
State affiliation: Azerbaijan.
Vigil category device — drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role. Not an official insignia.
In brief
The special forces founded in April 1999 and headquartered at Yashma near Baku — the formations that carried the decisive infantry fighting of 2020, including the assault on Shusha, and whose commander of a decade went on to command the Land Forces in 2024.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. No subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination reported
- Sources
- 3 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
Broad area of activity
Not sector-bound; headquartered near Baku and committed across the front in 2020 and 2023
Notable history
Azerbaijan's special forces were established on 30 April 1999 under the Ministry of Defence, with headquarters at Yashma on the Absheron coast, and trained to Turkish standards over the following two decades. Their war was 2020: published accounts attribute to them the infantry advance through the forested highlands to Shusha and the assault that took the town, the decisive act of the war. Their commander from 2014, Hikmat Mirzayev, was appointed deputy defence minister and commander of the Land Forces in January 2024 — the clearest sign of what the ministry took the war's lesson to be. The relationship between the special forces and the commando brigades created after 2020 is not published; both are recorded under the Land Forces as compiled references place them.
Strengths
Demonstrated capability at campaign-decisive scale, and the institutional prestige that has since shaped the whole ground force.
Limitations
A record built against one opponent in one terrain, and an organisation whose structure below headquarters is not published. No strength, holdings or readiness are recorded.
Lineage & institutional history
Related locations
Shusha / Shushi: The November 2020 assault on the town is attributed in published accounts to the special forces; historical record.
Key events
Second Nagorno-Karabakh War
Azerbaijan launches a full offensive and wins in 44 days — Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones, Israeli loitering munitions and artillery mass against entrenched Armenian defences, culminating in the fall of Shusha (Shushi). Several thousand die on each side; Azerbaijan recovers the seven surrounding districts and part of the former NKAO.
Quick actions
System access
Where this record connects into the rest of Vigil. Each row is here because this organisation actually reaches it.
Assessed as of2026-06Last reviewed2026-09-09
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