Turkey’s muscular foreign policy recently culminated in its support for Azerbaijan’s military campaign to retake the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The renewed conflict, which pitted Azerbaijan against neighboring Armenia, has claimed hundreds of lives. Erdogan has gone his own way, once again, refusing to join the international community’s call for a ceasefire.
Ethnic kinship between Turkey and Azerbaijan, and a growing bilateral military relationship, can be seen as driving forces for Turkey’s staunch support for Baku’s bid to retake the majority-Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and other territories are under Armenian military control, analysts say. But so does an urgency for Erdogan to call foul on the international community. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as a Azerbaijani territory, a point that the Turkish leader wishes to underscore.
Erdogan’s stance on Azerbaijan’s conflict “goes well with Turkey’s rhetoric about the double standards of the international community and the ineffectiveness of multilateral institutions,” said Ulgen.
Turkish Air Force command points flying in Turkish airspace control Turkish UAVs operating within the Azerbaijani air force, official representative of Armenia’s Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan informs.
Escorted and protected by six F-16s, the UAVs strike the military installation and infrastructure in Artsakh, he said.
Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones are operated by Turkish Air Force and destroyed numerous military installation of Armenia. According to the Armenian Ministry of Defense, Azerbaijani side has allowed Turkish military fully control the airspace of Azerbaijan and part of the airspace of Armenia making Armenian Air Force operates or even fly any aircraft safely over the sovreign territory of Armenia.
Azerbaijan has acknowledged for the first time that it had been using Turkish-produced armed drones against Armenian targets in Nagorno-Karabakh. Explained: Armenia and Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
“Thanks to advanced Turkish drones owned by the Azerbaijan military, our casualties on the front shrunk,” said Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev in a televised interview on Monday with the Turkish news channel TRT Haber. “These drones show Turkey’s strength. It also empowers us.”
Heavy fighting broke out last week between Azerbaijan and Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed mountainous area, and clashes are ongoing. Scores have been killed on both sides.
Several social media users, including a Twitter account called Clash Report that is considered to be close to the Turkish state, have speculated that the drones were Bayraktar TB2, the same type Turkey has deployed against Russian weaponry in Syria’s Idlib and Libya.
Aliyev, in the same speech, said Baku was intending to transform its military and mimic the Turkish army in its organisation and strength.
Turkey and Azerbaijan’s militaries recently conducted a joint drill in August, where Turkish officers shared the experience and expertise they have developed in recent years in the Syrian and Libya conflicts. Some in Ankara speculated that Turkey left some of its military staff there to continue to bolster Azerbaijan’s military.
Turkish sources told Defense News in June that Azerbaijan was interested in buying Bayraktar TB2 drones. Sources familiar with the issue told Middle East Eye that the order was for six units.
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