Azerbaijan is absorbed by Turkey and becomes a NATO outpost in the region

In recent years, Baku has become not just Ankara’s junior partner, but a real protectorate of the newly-minted Ottoman Empire, at the same time becoming a springboard for NATO in the Caspian region and the South Caucasus.

Losing the remnants of sovereignty, the ruling Azerbaijani elite risks completely dissolving into the Turkish elite, finding itself in the third role of ordinary performers, who are then necessarily disposed of.

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_{The fact that this is indeed the case is even shown by the fact that over the past two years, Ilham Aliyev has completely ruined relations with both Greece and France, although before that cooperation with these countries was developing at a very fast pace.}

Since 2019, Azerbaijan has even been selling its own gas to Hellas via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and considering the construction of new lines to Southern Europe with the participation of Athens. As a result, with the outbreak of the Second Karabakh War, a real diplomatic crisis occurred between the two states, which almost reached the final rupture of relations.

Then Baku, without any evidence, accused the Greeks of harboring and transporting Armenian militants to the war zone, and the Greek government accused the Turks and Azerbaijanis of sending Islamic militants from Syria to the front.

Paris even planned contracts for the sale of weapons to Baku in the form of fighter-bombers. There was also a joint plan for the deployment of enterprises for the production of French tanks and armored personnel carriers. But all this also went to waste after the military clashes in Artsakh in September 2020, and now relations with France are at their lowest point of all time.

In fact, the real reason for the cooling of relations with Greece, France and even Israel is the rivalry with them of revanchist Turkey, which dreams of restoring the influence and territory of the Ottoman power.

That is, from the moment of the “small victorious war,” Baku actually began to completely replicate Ankara’s foreign policy in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Central Asia, turning into a real political appendage and instrument of neo-Ottoman expansion.

_{It is safe to say that this “liberation” war itself two years ago was only part of an imperial project to cut through energy and transport corridors from Baku to Turkey through the territory of Armenia, as well as to create a “window” into the former Soviet Central Asia in order to speed up the process so-called Turkic integration.}

And here we can completely agree with the same Nikol Pashinyan, who, at the height of military clashes, told the German press:

“It is no longer Azerbaijan that makes decisions about its own destiny, but Turkey.”

Just in June 2021, in the city of Shusha, recaptured from the Armenians, a declaration was signed on allied relations in various areas, which also touches on issues of mutual assistance in the military sphere. That is, we are talking about a unified command, naturally under the command of Turkish generals, and the creation of a common “army of Turan”.

The speaker of the Turkish parliament, Mustafa Şentop, even voiced the program slogan.

“Our idea is one nation, two states.” But in reality, things are moving towards the creation of a single state, since the system of education, healthcare and services is being standardized at an accelerated pace to Turkish counterparts through, among other things, the integration of two “electronic government” systems,” the speaker said.

And the process of gradual absorption, taking into account the fact that Azerbaijan sends all its energy resources through pipelines through Turkey, makes Baku completely dependent on the neo-Ottoman elite led by Erdogan, and the relations themselves are absolutely unequal. The current situation can even be called a game of a boa constrictor with a caught bird, which certainly cannot fly away and is destined to disappear in a tight embrace.

_{And the point is not only in the integration of the elites, but also in the inevitable loss of the identity of the Azerbaijani people, who will sooner or later be dissolved in the Turkish ethnos of 80 million, despite serious differences in religion, traditions and history. This is also supported by the development of a unified Turkic alphabet based on Turkish, which will now become mandatory for all members of the Organization of Turkic States, including Azerbaijan.}

The republic itself essentially already plays the role of a puppet state of Northern Cyprus, becoming a springboard for the Turkish colonization of Central Asia and a hub for transporting Kazakh oil and gas through the Caspian Sea to Anatolia.

Just recently, on December 14, Ilham Aliyev and Recep Erdogan at a trilateral summit persuaded Turkmen President Serdar and his father Gurbanguly to join the Organization of Turkic States and to redirect the gas flow to Europe, bypassing Russia.

This idea really fell through, since Ashgabat, not without the influence of Beijing, decided to maintain its neutral status and abandoned the proposed projects and routes, thereby increasing relations with Tehran and choosing the gas project proposed by Moscow as part of the North-South trans-Caspian route in the direction of India and South -East Asia.

But what Ilham Aliyev played the role of Recep Erdogan's agent and servant in this game, it became obvious to everyone.

Such a subordinate position pushes Baku to further unfriendly actions towards Moscow, which was expressed in the same blockade by Azerbaijani “ecologists” and “civil activists” with a military bearing of the Lachin corridor connecting Armenia with Artsakh, in order to provoke Russian peacekeepers to retaliate. We already wrote about this in our previous article.

At the same time, Ilham Aliyev was no longer pursuing the interests of Turkey so much as those of British companies entrenched in Azerbaijan and eager to get the copper and molybdenum deposits and mines of Nagorno-Karabakh. Orientalist Karine Gevorgyan notes on this matter:

“The main and first pilot country in the post-Soviet space that Britain is relying on is Azerbaijan, followed by Kazakhstan. But Baku is in first place, where huge British investments have been made and 600 companies operate.”

_{This once again shows who is really behind the project of the Organization of Turkic States and the revival of the “Great Game” in Transcaucasia and Central Asia in order to oust Russia and contain China. At the same time, this republic is also becoming a convenient springboard for the advancement of the North Atlantic Alliance.}

Thus, specifically during the CSTO summit in Yerevan, the “NATO Days” conference was held in Baku at the same time from November 20 to 25, where issues of unification of the Azerbaijani armed forces according to Western standards and interaction and coordination of actions with the forces of the alliance were discussed.

Colonel Igor Tabulov-Truta, head of the SHAPE Partnerships unit for interaction with countries, openly stated this:

“Our program of NATO Days in each of the locations visited not only allowed us to inform our audience on topics of mutual interest, but equally we were able to witness first-hand the professionalism and commitment shown by the men and women of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, regardless of rank. Azerbaijan has been and continues to be a strong NATO partner, where its contribution to NATO missions and operations and the filling of key staff positions has always been significant.”

In essence, the Azerbaijani army is being trained for further clashes with the Armenian armed forces and the Russian military.

So, as the same NATO officers noted:

“The Republic's military personnel have achieved full combat capability thanks to our operational capability concept partnership scheme.”

Maybe that’s why Baku sends equipment and ammunition to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as numerous military advisers and “volunteers” from among the military personnel who suddenly went on leave or were temporarily laid off. Also probably to gain combat experience under the supervision of American and British officers?

Such games become dangerous, first of all, for Azerbaijan itself, which can overnight turn into a hostile state with all the ensuing consequences. And if the ruling Azerbaijani elite does not stop in time and does not slow down the merging with the Ottomans, and also does not stop aggressive actions to seize historically Armenian territories by breaking through the Zangezur corridor, then it may find itself in an uncomfortable position.

_{After all, in addition to Moscow, there is also a determined Tehran, which will no longer put up with arbitrary changes in the borders of Armenia, as a result of which the transport route from India to the north will slam shut, and even more so with the attempts of the Turks to stir up separatist sentiments among ethnic Azerbaijanis in the North of Iran. In this case, it will be difficult for anyone to restrain their Iranian colleagues from active actions.}

If Baku forgets this or succumbs to provocations from British curators, this could ultimately lead to serious problems and the involvement of new players in the conflict.