A Turkish political scientist has commented on the military cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan.
“I think Turkey and Azerbaijan should not only sign a large-scale military agreement, they are even late in this issue. Armenia is a CSTO member, it has recently signed a military agreement with France. Therefore, Azerbaijan should also gain military support of Turkey,” said Arif Keskin, Turkish political scientist and analyst of the Turkish Center of International Relations and Strategic Analysis and professor of the 21st Century University of Ankara, commenting on the recent Azerbaijani-Turkish high level meeting to be held in Ankara.
“Though Turkey has helped the formation of the Azerbaijani army since the beginning, more is to be done. There is a need for a large-scale treaty for the parties to be able to assume commitments before each other in case of threat to their security. Turkey seems to be unwilling to risk with signing such a treaty but Baku should persuade it to take this step. This is too important for Azerbaijan as this will strengthen its positions in the negotiation process on Karabakh and the overall region. Baku should intensify its diplomacy in this direction and I consider this meeting of the high ranking military officials of our countries to be very useful,” he said.
“Armenia is a parasitic country, it will continue causing crisis in the region, therefore, Azerbaijan needs to secure itself now and in the future. The Turkish public will be just happy with the signing of such an agreement between Ankara and Baku,” the political scientist said.
Meanwhile, he noted that Turkey has some fears because of Russia.
Asked how Azerbaijan may force Ankara to sign such an agreement, Keskin said Baku has many levers of pressure on Turkey.
“This is, primarily, an energy factor, second, it is a factor of closeness of our people, third, it is an Iranian factor. Ankara understands that in case of the Iranian campaign that may be launched by the West, it can be backed by Azerbaijani living there and in order to influence them, it must continue cooperation and brotherhood policy with Azerbaijan,” Keskin said.
