Azerbaijan to host military exercises with Turkey next week

Azerbaijan said on Tuesday it would host military exercises with its close ally Turkey next week.

On its website, the defense ministry of the mostly ethnically Turkic south Caucasus state said the maneuvers marking the centenary of the Turkish republic would take place on Oct. 23-25 in several regions.

These will include the capital Baku, the region of Nakhchivan, and Azerbaijani territories seized from ethnic Armenian control since 2020 in advances welcomed by Turkey.

Nakhchivan borders Turkey and Iran but is geographically separated from mainland Azerbaijan by Armenia.

Last month, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted talks with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan in Nakhchivan, less than a week after Azerbaijani forces swept into the breakaway ethnic Armenian-controlled territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, the last area of Azerbaijan outside Baku’s control.

At the meeting, Aliyev received Erdogan’s support for the prospect of creating a land corridor between western Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan via Armenia, which opposes the idea.