Analysts compare Baku's military-technical cooperation with Ankara and Moscow

Azerbaijan is hosting the "Teknofest" aviation, space and technology festival, which is held outside of Turkey for the first time. Within its framework, it is planned to sign a number of agreements, and also an idea was announced to launch the production of "Bayraktar-Akinci" heavy drones in Azerbaijan. The Baku-Ankara military cooperation is unlikely to interfere with the Baku's cooperation with Moscow, since it is about the supply of different types of weapons, the analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have noted.

On May 26-29, the "Teknofest-2022" is being held in Baku – a festival of aviation, space and technologies. This is Turkey's largest festival on the respective topics. In 2022, the festival is being held outside of Turkey for the first time; and this decision is assessed by organizers as a manifestation of the two countries' fraternal and strategic alliance.

Turkey and Azerbaijan are planning to sign a number of agreements within the framework of the festival, Mustafa Varank, the Turkish Minister for Industries and Technologies, told the "Anadolu" Agency.

The news of the year in the Azerbaijani-Turkish defence cooperation is the statement by Selçuk Bayraktar, the technical director of the "Bayraktar Company", about plans to launch production of the "Bayraktar-Akinci" heavy UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle) in Azerbaijan.

Elkhan Velizade, a political analyst, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the Azerbaijani-Turkish and Azerbaijani-Russian military-technical cooperation differs in at least one fundamental point. "While in relations with Turkey, Azerbaijan aims at joint production of new weapons, in its relations with Russia, Baku buys batches of weapons from there. The production of Russian weapons is not planned in Azerbaijan," he has noted.

In his turn, Elkhan Shikhaliev, a military expert, expects that Azerbaijani-Russian cooperation in the military sphere will continue; in particular, according to his version, in the field of armoured vehicles, since the world market essentially does not offer any other choice. Also, Azerbaijan does not intend to abandon Russian military aviation and small arms. At the same time, as he has clarified, recently, the importance of purchasing Turkish and Israeli combat drones, as well as "smart" anti-tank and anti-aircraft missile systems has come to the forefront.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 28, 2022 at 03:49 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.