Trend News Agency cited Azerbaijani member of parliament Vugar Iskenderov celebrating military cooperation and integration between his nation and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The basis for current high-level cooperation – his words – between the Caspian Sea country and the thirty-nation global military bloc was laid in 1994 with Baku’s joining NATO’s Partnership for Peace program. That program was employed to groom the fourteen countries that have joined the alliance since 1999: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
According to the Azeri deputy, his nation is “conducting a political dialogue with NATO on a wide range of issues of mutual interest.” He also highlighted the fact that over the past twenty-seven years Azerbaijan has provided NATO with troops for wars and post-war “peacekeeping” missions.
From 1999, the year NATO bombed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and drove it out of Kosovo, until 2008 Azerbaijan provided troops for the bloc’s Kosovo Force (KFOR). From 2002 to 2014 it provided troops for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to create a NATO-interoperable Afghan army (since 2012 Afghanistan has belonged to NATO’s Partners Across the Globe), and since then for ISAF’s successor, Operation Resolute Support.
The North Atlantic alliance also commended Azerbaijan for providing transit for troops and equipment during the twenty-year war in Afghanistan.
As Azerbaijan provides the main transit corridor for Caspian Sea oil and natural gas moving westward, NATO strongly values its “long-standing interest in the protection of critical energy infrastructure….”
American officials acknowledged several years ago that transporation infrastructure developed to move oil and gas westward from the Caspian Sea Basin through the South Caucasus, was “reverse flowed” after 2001 to move troops and military equipment eastward.
As with Ukraine and Georgia, fellow NATO aspirants, there are two obstacles that will have to be removed before Azerbaijan can be considered for full NATO membership. There is the vestige of a territorial dispute between Azerbaijan and what’s left of ethnic Armenian communities in Nagorno-Karabakh after last year’s Turkish-supported Azerbaijani invasion of that area. And what remaining armed forces maintained by Nagorno-Karabakh would be considered a foreign military presence according to NATO criteria. Both issues would have to be eliminated. Baku as well as NATO is eager to do just that.
Much as with Georgia, its neighbor in the Caucasus, Azerbaijani armed forces have been provided military, including combat, experience by NATO in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
When Georgia invaded South Ossetia in 2008 and triggered a five-day war with Russia, it had the third-largest contingent of troops in Iraq, with only the U.S. and Britain ahead of it. Those more than 2,000 troops were transported back to Georgia by the U.S. military to participate in the war. Georgia later became the largest non-NATO troop contributing nation in Afghanistan as well.
MP Iskenderov was quoted by Trend saying that President Ilham Aliyev, in a recent phone conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “emphasized the importance of Azerbaijan’s participation in the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan since its inception.” And that that contribution “confirms the role of Azerbaijan in maintaining peace and security on an international scale, as well as the fact that the United States attaches particular importance to the activities of Azerbaijan in this direction.”
For twenty-seven years NATO has been preparing the armed forces of Azerbaijan for just such a war as it waged last year; and for any future war in the South Caucasus it may be contemplating now.
Rick Rozoff is a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He has been involved in anti-war and anti-interventionist work in various capacities for forty years. He lives in Chicago, Illinois. He is the manager of Stop NATO. This originally appeared at Anti-Bellum.
I would agree with the events up to US invasion of Afghanistan, when many countries provided US with transit and resupply routes Russia included.
But the reality is very different today. I am sure there are many in Azerbaijan groomed by Israel. Azerbaijan was frustrated because the region wanted stability and no war — that for over 30 years could not do anything to return its sovereign territory that Armenia held. Nobody wanted war — not Russia, not Turkey and definitively not Iran. Azerbaijan politicians and some money interest — started importing Israeli arms, US could not do it — not NATO either, as Armenian diaspora was shelling out hundreds of millions into US politics. In 2018 there was a major change — colored revolution in Yerevan. This was a success in Washington, as the new regime went after anything Russian, and expected US to come to their aid.
But they made a mistake, immediately seized upon by neighborhood. In July, Armenian fire killed two high ranking Azerbaijani commanders. By September, war that before NOBODY wanted, now everybody wanted. Why? Because Russia has ONLY the obligation to protect ARMENIAN territory, not territory that belongs to Azerbaijan. Turkey very loudly took sides — insuring that Israel will NOT become Azerbaijani hero, and help return occupied land. It was a nice job by Russia and Turkey, as Nagorno-Karabakh was not overrun by Azerbaijan and peace signed by Armenia and Azerbaijan,
The outcome — Russian peacekeepers and tanks are in Azerbaijan, securing Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the corridor between NK and Armenia. At the same time — Russia and Turkey have joint Peace Center to coordinate activities in Azerbaijan. Russia is according to
peace agreement, secure corridor through Armenia that will connect Azerbaijan to its exclave, giving overland connection between Turkey and Azerbaijan. This corridor is also a security perimeter for Iran. After color revolution in 2018, US advisors were coming from Georgia, and had access through Armenia to sensitive Iranian border, as well as Kurdish areas in both Iran and Turkey.
I fully expect that some incidents will crop up, as Armenia is unstable and Biden is putting salt in the wound by genocide recognition.
But for the next five years Russian military will be in Azerbaijan. And Turkey will see to this that no Israeli influence is present in Azerbaijan,
As for energy, Azerbaijan is connected to Turkey via Georgia. For those that remember war on 8.8.2008 — Russia-Georgia war, Turkey was to be punished for not letting US navy outside Montreux convention into Black Sea. Georgia cut off Turkey pipeline from Azerbaijan. Guess what happened next? Azerbaijan REVERSED the flow to Russia using existing Soviet era connectivity, and from Russia, gas was sent down Blue Stream into Turkey.
There are too many regional complimentary interests — to be that lightly thrown away for the sake of NATO “protection”. These interests are important to regional countries, and cannot see trading them for some vague promises,
I remember repeatedly saying last year that no matter what the wrongs and rights of the situation, Russia must support Armenia on Nagorno Karabakh. Not doing so results in what we see now. What will Russia do if the Azeri Ottoman Headchopper Alliance now attacks the rest of Nagorno Karabakh? Stepanakert is virtually defenceless now with Azeri artillery ranged in on it from Shusha. Will Russia threaten war with Azerbaijan then? No? What a surprise.
I do not understand the purpose of this scaremongering. Turkey is simultaneously on the attack by US — and is dangerous to Russia?
Russia does not have its own rules based order, and follows international law and UN resolutions.
Russia has obligation to protect Armenia, but NOT to prevent Azerbaijan from returning its territory. There are UN resolutions calling on Armenia to return those lands,
Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijan but has majority Armenian population. To protect them, Russian troops are in Azerbaijan. As well as to secure corridor to Armenia. Russia and Turkey have joint Peace coordination Center in Azerbaijan.
What is really the purpose of scaremongering? Is Russia to be afraid of Ottoman Empire, or is it actually Biden calling for the return of Constantinople ?
Basically, US is acting as if Turkey is an enemy. While here — all the rage is, Turkey is dangerous to Russia? Which one is it? It cannot be both.
The Ottomans are far too strategically located geographically and with far too much military strength for NATO to sacrifice, and Incirlik is still a NATO nuclear weapons base. Therefore I automatically assume any Ottoman moves as dictated by NATO and “evidence” of rifts more or less a sham.
I doubt that NATO worries much about moving footstools or long-defunct empires around.
The CIA failed a regime change in 2016…. Both Russia and Washington need Turkey. And neither is in love with Erdogan, so doesn’t he have to play them off against each other in order to survive?
What you are saying makes sense, from bird’s eye view. I tend to crawl close to the ground, try to feel and interpret the needs and wants of any party involved. I let the big picture form itself.
NATO is an interesting creature. I am curious what will happen after Afghanistan. This was I believe the first mission after WWII that NATO invoked mutual protection clause. And during war, NATO American Supreme Commander is automatically NATO armed forces commander. What will happen when the NATO war status ends with the closure of Afghanistan war? No clue.
As for Incirlik base, US would rather keep the status quo without giving Turkey any excuse to close it. They already have conflicts with Turkey
limiting visits to NATO members. Germany was particularly incensed.
But as you know, the base was off limits in Iraq war, and following the restoration of Erdogan government in May 2016 — his investigation resulted in Turkish general stationed at Incirlik to be arrested for participating in downing of Russian plane in November 2015.
Most people just assume that Erdogan was always secure in his power, and is a fixture for decades. Perhaps, for decades, but there were many more attempts of removing him from power then the attempted coup in July 2016. When he took over for the first time, he narrowly escaped his party being banned.
Throughout 2015 he was in the middle of power struggle. His term as prime minister was up, and he was to run for the president. Turkey for a while wanted to change system to Presidential, as Parliamentary is by design unstable. But as he became elected president, the parliamentary elections were such that it did not give Erdogan’s party sufficient control to pass the necessary constitutional change.
In that time frame, Turkey was destabilized. Kurdish parties were working with NATO favorite, the Republican party, to undo Erdogan’s party. Second elections were held, and he got the majority he needed. But within his own party, there was strong pro-EU group lead by former Foreign Minister Davutoglu.
Erdogan had no choice, but to let them govern. In November, one hour after Davutoglu’s government took over, Russian plane was shot down, and one pilot killed in the air by militants on the ground. This severely affected relations with Russia which called it “knife in the back”.
And Davutoglu was not done. He cut the deal with Germany for what was dubbed as visa-free travel to Germany by Turkish citizens, a dream come true to many in Turkey who have large diaspora in Germany. Then EU came up with billions in assistance to refugees from Syria that Turkey was housing.
And after a while, Erdogan was left aside, as Davutoglu led the condemnation of Russia for intruding into their air space (for few minutes), while not putting in a motion to change Presidential powers.
Erdogan was severely hampered — but being a cat of more then nine lives, he somehow got the intelligence on the details of visa-free deal as well as billions in refugee assistance.
And being Erdogan, he went public with this knowledge, and Davutoglu government could not deny it. For visa free regime, there were 74 conditions, no less. One of them was autonomy for Kurds. As for billions to refugees, not one euro was to come to Turkey that was paying for both housing and food. The billions were to go to European organizations that were to come in and organize education and health care for refugees.
Following that, in May of 2016, Davutoglu government resigned, and Erdogan appointed new Prime Minister and other ministers from his party. Within two days, they apologized to Russia, found those responsible.
As Russia ties were restored, within months of this event, in July 2016, a coup.
I really would not call it a coup, as it had no deep support in military. It was more of an appearance of a coup, with major TV stations being taken over to tell population that coup leaders are in charge. Taking few tanks around city was not really any show of force, and in fact troops were told that these were emergency exercises. The key objective of the coup was apparently to assassinate Erdogan. A team of special forces came to the hotel where he was supposed to be with his family on vacation.
Not finding him there, coup unraveled. Some show of force was demonstrated around the parliament, but it was quickly rebuffed by regular forces not involved in coup. In the meantime Erdogan showed up at Istanbul airport, and gave message to the nation. People came to streets, and the bottom line was that police was finally called in to save the troops on the street from mobs. Troops had no idea what was going on.
But the coup opened the door to eliminate all foreign funded organizations, media and other meddlers in Turkish politics. I followed much of that media before and after takeover. I assure you, AFTER picture was much better. All BEFORE analysts were passionate neocons, you could not distinguish them from US neocon narrative.
Turkish politics has stabilized since 2016, and even though Davutoglu made attempt to form his own party, a charges of corruption were quick to emerge, and he did not follow through. He was the creator of book on Neo-Ottomans, in service to European Union.
Ever since, Turkey has moved into being more involved globally, and on every occasion US and EU were not too pleased. Which means in my book, that the backing for the international presence cane from Russia and China.
From Libya to Iraq to Qatar, and especially Azerbaijan. It is amusing to me today to read that Turkey did it to advance NATO interests. Following the trail of money, Turkey has been target of currency attacks, and I did not hear anyone claim that it was Russia or China doing attacking, nor was it the “invisible hand of the market” Several rounds of help came from Chine and Qatar.
Those details make me wonder — is it possible that so much venom is being thrown at Turkey from the West, that it needs assistance from Russia, China and Qatar? How far do you think can this ACTING go? If it is all acting — it is brilliant. I am watch for signs. So far, they elude me.
Thirty nations? I’m sure it was North Macedonia and Montenegro and Estonia and Luxembourg and Slovenia that interested them in cooperation, right?