Question of the day: will Turkey build air bases in Azerbaijan?

The news, which was reported by the Blue Beard Telegram channel with reference to the Turkish media, was to be expected: Turkey is creating air bases in three cities of Azerbaijan - in Ganja, Lankaran and Gabala.

There are at least 3 arguments in favor of the likely scenario:

1. Arrival of 7 Turkish military transport aircraft A400M to Ganja the other day.
2. Arrival of 3 Turkish military transport aircraft to Lankaran.
3. Chevrons of pilots of Turkish F-16s, which will be based in Ganja, and on which the locations of three air bases are marked.

Earlier, the media reported that Russia intends to increase the number of peacekeepers in Artsakh. if the above scenario comes true.

Meanwhile, network analyst Dmitry Gorshenin wrote about this even at the height of the Karabakh war in November last year:

“Considering all the speculations about Russia's surrender of certain historical conquests in the Caucasus against the background of the events around Nagorno-Karabakh, it is worth stating: if earlier only the West bit off the former influence of the Russian Empire and the USSR, now the time has come for the East.

Previously, it was mainly the United States and Europe that operated, pushing NATO troops to the western borders of Russia. Now, Turkey is doing it a little differently, but also purposefully.

And if sometime 1999 was remembered, among other things, for the famous march of Russian peacekeepers on Pristina, then in the rapid war of the Turks for Karabakh we behaved somehow quieter in Syria, with the exception of Idlib.

Ankara came to Karabakh within the framework of allied relations with Baku - exactly the same as I understand what Moscow has with Damascus. And if we draw parallels, then Russia had every opportunity to help the ally state not only to bomb one of the bases of the Turkish militants, but to destroy them all, forcing the Turks out of Syria. This would help Erdogan think again.

Now, globally, the issue of Karabakh has resulted in the appearance of a military base of a NATO country near our North Caucasian borders (in legal terms, nothing at all depends on us - Azerbaijan is a sovereign country, it has the right to make such decisions).

If the base is located somewhere in Sheki or Ganja, then this is an unequivocal loss for Russia.

Therefore, Armenia did not receive any substantial support from Europe and America, because those, as countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, strategically could not help but support the closing of another chain of the ring.

Turkey's entry to Azerbaijan is not bad at all in terms of the deployment of air bases for military prospects:

* the distance from Lankaran to Tehran is 556 km, and to the Iranian border is about 40 km;

* distance from Gabala to the Russian border - 120 km;

* the distance from Ganja to the Armenian border is about 70 km, to the Georgian border - about 60 km.

* The closest air bases to these countries in Turkey are Pazar and Erzurum, but they are still at some distance, although this distance is very small for aviation.

Considering that Turkey already borders on Georgia, Armenia and Iran, Turkey has full air control over all the countries of the former Soviet Caucasus and, therefore, NATO. Russia doesn't have that.

A convincing diplomatic "victory" for Russia as a result of the last short Karabakh war..."

Journalist Sergey Mardan comments on this news in a peculiar way:

“I will clarify a little about the construction of three Turkish air bases in Azerbaijan.

The airbase in Lankaran is the control over the water area of the entire South Caspian. The same one where the Caspian flotilla and "calibers" are. They are now under the gun of Turkey.

And the distance from the air base in Ganja is best measured not to Tbilisi (which no one needs for nothing), but to Makhachkala. It is 273 km. And to the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline. Approximately 50 km.

In all other respects, Gorshenin is right and Aliyev's regime will still have to be changed. But, it will cost much more than three years ago..."

However, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan hastened to refute these reports.

"The information that has been disseminated does not correspond to reality", - Vagif Dargahli, head of the press service of the Azerbaijani military department, told RIA Novosti. According to him, "with the exception of cases stipulated in the agreements that it supports, the Republic of Azerbaijan does not adhere to the policy of deploying foreign military bases on its territory". “It should be noted that Azerbaijan is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and is chairing this movement in 2019-2022”, - the ministry's official said.