ArmInfo. On June 15, on the day of the signing of the "Declaration of Allied Relations" in Shushi, the city acquired an additional symbolic function - a demonstration of Turkish- Azerbaijani unity. A similar opinion was expressed to ArmInfo by a leading researcher at MGIMO of the Russian Foreign Ministry, editor-in-chief of the International Analytics magazine Sergei Markedonov.
"However, it is important and necessary to emphasize here that a new level of military-political and economic relations and partnership between Ankara and Baku is by no means only declared. It is being implemented in practice. And it has been implemented for a long time. In the post-Soviet period, many bilateral agreements and multilateral documents were signed between Turkey and Azerbaijan, precisely on the basis of the strategic proximity of the two countries, "he stressed.
Thus, Turkey, which strengthened its positions in the South Caucasus following the results of last year's war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to the analyst, is by no means a new player in the region. Having recognized the independence of Azerbaijan the day after the official registration of the collapse of the USSR, Turkey consistently supported Azerbaijan's position on the Karabakh settlement, in military and state development. However, it was the 44-day war, according to Markedonov, that allowed Turkey to become the first state outside the post-Soviet space to openly intervene in the post-Soviet ethnopolitical conflict.
"Thus, having violated the tacit taboo on non-interference in the situation in the regions of" special significance "for Moscow, Ankara today is actually a major player in the Caucasus. Moreover, not only in Azerbaijan, but also in Georgia. As a major investor in the Georgian economy, Turkey has serious religious influence on a number of regions of Georgia. And now Turkish President Erdogan is making a statement about the opening of a consulate in the "cultural capital" of Azerbaijan, the organization of the production of drones in Azerbaijan, " he stressed. This state of affairs in the aggregate, according to the analyst, is evidence of the formation of a completely new quality of the Turkish presence not only in the Caucasus, but also, in general, in Eurasia. In this light, Markedonov suggested that by declaring itself in the South Caucasus, in general, and in Karabakh, in particular, as a self-sufficient force, Ankara indirectly, but responds to Russia's involvement in the Syrian conflict in 2015. "It is important to note that repeatedly resorting to revisionism in the Middle East and Africa, the Caucasus and the Black Sea region, Turkey is no longer doing it as a NATO representative, but as an independent Eurasian power, "Markedonov concluded.