ArmInfo.Turkey is striving for hegemony in the South Caucasus in the future by strengthening its influence and creating a kind of geopolitical staging ground in Nakhijevan. Director of Institute of Oriental Studies, Armenian National Academy of Sciences Ruben Safrastyan, expressed his opinion to ArmInfo
"In my opinion, the Turkish military-political activity observed in recent years in Nakhijevan pursues far- reaching geopolitical goals. All of this in aggregate is part of a general strategy towards a significant increase in Turkey's influence. In particular, these are plans to form a Turkish military base ", - he stressed.
According to the forecasts of the turkologist, this policy of Ankara pursues the goal to significantly reduce the influence of Russia, for which the South Caucasus has the most important geostrategic importance. Thus, according to him Turkey's attempts to increase its influence in the region primarily come up against the interests of Russia, which regards the South Caucasus as a zone of its priority influence. Safrastyan is convinced that Ankara's costly and rather serious plans to open a military base in Nakhijevan should be considered in conjunction with another Turkish initiative. The base in Nakhichevan is called upon over time to perfectly complement the already established military-political axis Turkey-Georgia- Azerbaijan.
In this light, he drew attention to another step by Ankara's strategic ally of Azerbaijan, which had recently placed border troops on the border with Armenia. In other words, the troops, whose equipment, munitions and, accordingly, offensive capabilities do not go to any comparison with the troops consisting of conscripts.
"Thus, we have to state the complete absence of positive developments of our two neighbors in relation to Armenia. Together with the above circumstances, all this creates prerequisites for the emergence of a fundamentally new situation, and, accordingly, for the emergence of new challenges and threats to the security of Armenia. Both Armenia and Artsakh should be ready for this first and foremost by consistently raising the level of combat readiness of the Armed Forces ", Safrastyan concluded.
In August 2014, an agreement was reached between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia to create a new diplomatic format. - a trilateral meeting of ministers of defense, which was held twice a year. The joint exercises of the parties made regular, having agreed to hold them annually at the beginning of the summer. There have already been five meetings between the defense ministers of the three countries in Nakhijevan. In the framework of military cooperation, the parties annually conduct the Caucasian Eagle exercise, in which Special Forces take part. In parallel with cooperation in the military sector, regular meetings of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey are held.