Ankara played major role in modernizing Azerbaijani Army, says Ilham Aliyev
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Wednesday that his country attained a “high level” of military operations with neighboring Türkiye.
Speaking in an interview with Russia's state-owned broadcaster VGTRK and state news agency RIA, Aliyev said that Azerbaijan and Türkiye have engaged in military cooperation since the beginning of 1992, soon after Baku declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
Expressing that the forms of this cooperation have changed depending on the need, Aliyev said Ankara has played a major role in modernizing the Azerbaijani Army, bringing it to “high standards in terms of both combat capability and operational planning” among other matters.
“In other words, we are very grateful to our Turkish friends for such assistance,” Aliyev further said.
Commenting on a question on whether there is a need for a Turkish military base in Azerbaijan, he reminded the 2021 Shusha Declaration, which elevated Ankara-Baku ties to the level of alliance, contains a clause providing for mutual military assistance in case of threat or aggression.
“Therefore, this clause of the (Shusha) Declaration essentially makes the creation of any permanent military infrastructure in this or that territory completely unnecessary,” he added.
The Shusha Declaration, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described as a "new-era roadmap for relations between Türkiye and Azerbaijan," is also cited as a guarantee that no new aggression will be allowed in the region, as well as deepening regional cooperation and integration in the Turkic world.
Türkiye was a key backer of Azerbaijan during the 44-day Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, and ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire and sizeable Azerbaijani gains on Nov. 10.
“With Türkiye, we conduct more than 10 joint exercises every year - half in Azerbaijan, half in Türkiye, and in essence, we have achieved a high level of military operations,” Aliyev noted.
He further expressed this is an important factor in stability in the Caucasus because developments today show that the world has fundamentally changed.
The Azerbaijani president added that he hopes current tensions between Russia and NATO will not lead to an open confrontation between the two, describing such an event as “tantamount to imagining a global apocalypse.”
