President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev responded to the "Do you need a Turkish military base in Azerbaijan?" question during his interview with Dmitry Kiselev, Director General of the “Rossiya Segodnya” International News Agency, APA reports.
The head of state expressed that there's no need for that.
"No, we don’t – in a nutshell. If I expand my answer a bit, taking into account the fact that such information appears in certain media from time to time, I have to say that there is no need for that," - he said.
Azerbaijani President said that Azerbaijan has been cooperating with Türkiye militarily since the restoration of independence, since the beginning of 1992: " This is when our military cooperation started and it continues to this day. Of course, the forms change depending on the need, but I have to say that over the course of more than 30 years, Türkiye and its military structures have played a great role in modernizing the Azerbaijani army and bringing it to high standards in terms of combat capability, planning of operations, situation analysis, and military intelligence potential. So, we are very grateful to our Turkish friends for such assistance.
The Declaration on Allied Relations between Türkiye and Azerbaijan, which was signed a year before the Declaration between Azerbaijan and Russia, contains a clause that provides for mutual military assistance in case of threat or an act of aggression. So, it is an obligation of both Azerbaijan and Türkiye to come to the aid in case one or the other country faces an external threat and an act of external aggression. Therefore, this paragraph of the declaration essentially makes the establishment of permanent military infrastructures on this or that territory absolutely unnecessary.
Going back to the fake news, I would like to say that it is virtually impossible to hide any military base in any part of the world these days. Therefore, such fake news are nothing but political speculation. We and Türkiye annually conduct more than 10 joint exercises – half in Azerbaijan and half in Türkiye. In fact, we have achieved a high degree of operability of military operations. Of course, this is an important factor for stability in the Caucasus. Because today's world, and the way events are unfolding, is further evidence that the world has changed dramatically. The realities that were created, and the rules of the game defined by the results of World War II, no longer work. Even global actors are not hiding it. The power factor is once again coming to the forefront of political aspirations. And countries that realized this sooner than later can feel safer today – although no country can feel completely safe in today's world," - he concluded.
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