Azerbaijani army is already part of Turkish army – Dmitry Rodionov

Speaking with Alpha News, Director at the Center for Geopolitical Research of the Institute for Innovative Development Dmitry Rodionov commented on Azerbaijani President Aliyev’s statement that Turkey will not have a military base in Azerbaijan.

“We see that the Azerbaijani army is actively being armed by the Turkish Republic, and, in fact, Turkey has already outrun Russia in terms of arms supplies to Azerbaijan. Basically, the Azerbaijani army has already switched to Turkish weapons. Moreover, we know that there is an agreement between Turkey and Azerbaijan on mutual assistance, when in the event of an attack on one side, the other side must come to the rescue. And this is actually equivalent to the fifth article of NATO. That is why Azerbaijan does not need any real military bases of Turkey,” the expert said.

According to Rodionov, de facto Azerbaijan can be considered a NATO country.

“In case of war, Azerbaijan can fully rely on Turkish troops; it can rely on absolutely unlimited supplies of Turkish weapons at any time and in any quantity. Therefore, in this regard, we can say that Azerbaijan does not need a base that would only become a symbol of the fact that the Azerbaijani army is already part of the Turkish army. In this regard, we can say that de facto Azerbaijan can be considered a NATO country to some extent, since Turkey is a member of NATO,” Rodionov said.