Baku: Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said on Monday it had begun joint drills with its ally Turkey near the border with Armenia, weeks after Baku recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian separatists.
Azerbaijan last month took control of the long-disputed region in a 24 hour offensive that ended decades of Armenian separatist rule.
The ministry said “up to 3,000” troops would take part in the tactical drills held in capital Baku, the Nakhichevan exclave between Iran and Armenia, as well as territories retaken from Armenian separatists.
The exercises — dubbed “Mustafa Kermal Ataturk 2023” — involve dozens of artillery weapons and aviation.
Baku said they were aimed at “ensuring combat interoperability” between the allies.
The drills came as Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, Iran and Russia were set to send their foreign ministers to hold talks in Tehran in a diplomatic format initiated by Moscow in 2020 — after Baku and Yerevan went to war over Karabakh.