Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has denied media reports suggesting that Turkey was planning to establish a military base in Azerbaijan, saying that there is no need for it, the Sputnik news agency reported.
“To be brief, it is not necessary. To make my answer a little broader, taking into account that such information appears from time to time in some media, then I must say that there is no necessity [to establish a Turkish base],” Aliyev said in an interview with Dmitry Kiselev, the director general of the Rossiya Segodnya international media group, which is owned and operated by the Russian government and runs Sputnik and other media outlets.
The president also dismissed reports about a possible Turkish military base in Azerbaijan as “info-dumping” and “political speculation,” saying that nowadays “it is practically impossible to hide the creation of a military base anywhere in the world.”
The Shusha Declaration on allied relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan provides for mutual military assistance in the event of a threat of armed aggression, Aliyev said.
The Shusha Declaration, signed by Turkey and Azerbaijan in June 2021, included agreements on various issues in the political, economic, trade, culture, education, sport, energy security and defense industry sectors, including military cooperation between the two countries when they face a military threat.
“This is an obligation of both Türkiye and Azerbaijan to come to the aid of the other party in the face of an external threat or external aggression. Therefore, this article of the declaration makes the creation of permanent military infrastructure on either territory absolutely unnecessary,” he continued.
Aliyev also said that during more than 30 years of Turkish-Azerbaijani defense cooperation, Ankara and its military structures have played a significant role in modernizing the Azerbaijani army and bringing it up to high standards in terms of combat capability, operational planning, situation analysis and military intelligence.
“We are very grateful to our Turkish friends for this assistance,” he added.
Turkey’s military and political backing was seen as pivotal for Azerbaijan in its war with historic rival Armenia when the two battled fiercely for six weeks to gain control of the mountainous Karabakh region in 2020.
Turkey is a historic ally of predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan and views mostly Christian Armenia as one of its main regional rivals.
Ankara supplied Azerbaijan with combat drones and other military equipment that helped Baku win back swaths of the breakaway Karabakh region in the short but brutal war in 2020.