A new music video from Azerbaijan’s military shows off aircraft and armor. Screenshot from YouTube.
Azerbaijan wants the world to notice its cutting-edge armed forces, so it did what every powerful military does: It made a music video.
In a four-minute propaganda video, Azerbaijani troops pose in front of drones and propeller biplanes like high schoolers in a homemade rap video. The pop-rock song “Şəhidsiz Zəfər Olmaz” — or “There Is No Victory Without Martyrs” — bops along to synchronized tank volleys and helicopter gun runs, but the bearded men in cammies slapping bass and the beautiful singer somehow detract from all of that serious firepower.
Not even the frontwoman’s mountaintop gesturing or the drone-strike compilation could save the propaganda video from being cringeworthy. The video’s release date was no accident, gracing the internet Sunday, Sept. 26, a day before the one-year anniversary of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, in which Azerbaijan defeated Armenia in a six-week territorial dispute.
To be fair, the bizarre Azerbaijani banger might get your toe tapping on a second listen. It’s four minutes of your life you’ll never get back, but it’s worth it. And if you really want to go down a rabbit hole, the Azerbaijani military released an even heavier number by the same band last year.
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Mac Caltrider is a senior staff writer for Coffee or Die Magazine. He served in the US Marine Corps and is a former police officer. Caltrider earned his bachelor’s degree in history and now reads anything he can get his hands on. He is also the creator of Pipes & Pages, a site intended to increase readership among enlisted troops. Caltrider spends most of his time reading, writing, and waging a one-man war against premature hair loss.
