Dadash Garib oghlu Rzayev was an Azerbaijani major general and politician who was Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan from February to June 1993, and was the Chairman of Confederation of Azerbaijani Officers in Reserve.
19 Facts About Dadash Rzayev
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Dadash Rzayev never planned a military career but always wanted to be a pilot.
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Dadash Rzayev started his military career when he held the rank of Lieutenant.
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Dadash Rzayev was then assigned to troops in Lviv, Ukraine where he established airborne brigade.
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Dadash Rzayev created an airborne brigade for the Ethiopian Ministry of Defense and led some combat operations.
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Dadash Rzayev is said to have played a significant role in formation of Ethiopian troops.
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Dadash Rzayev visited villages in Karabakh and transported food to isolated areas.
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Dadash Rzayev received his rank of a General in 1991.
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Dadash Rzayev was the author of the military oath of allegiance which was taken by him and the first unit of the independent Azerbaijani Army known as The First tabor based on unit 18110 of the Soviet Army, on 8 December 1991 in the Martyrs' Alley.
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Dadash Rzayev took the assignment and created a 12,000 men corpus in the Tovuz region.
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Dadash Rzayev retired from active service in the army in 1995.
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However, 30 generals, colonels and high-ranking officers, including Dadash Rzayev were laid off in 2009 due to ongoing reforms in the ministry.
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Dadash Rzayev was the Chairman of Confederation of Azerbaijani Officers in Reserve.
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Dadash Rzayev was a proponent of aligning the Azerbaijani army according to NATO standards.
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Dadash Rzayev was confident that existing Azerbaijani manufacturing plants have a capacity to start producing the T-72 tanks to foster the domestic military production in Azerbaijan.
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In 2009, Dadash Rzayev made headlines after parachuting from an airplane at the age of 74.
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Dadash Rzayev first did it on 16 January 1955 as a cadet.
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Dadash Rzayev was the oldest person at 74 to jump off with a parachute on the territory of post Soviet states and the third person in the world to do it at that age.
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Dadash Rzayev was buried in the Second Martyrs' Lane in Baku.