‘Turkish-Azeri military relationship is unique’

Wednesday, May 18, 2005
ANKARA – Turkish Daiy News

DIPLOMACY

‘Azerbaijan is the number-one country for us from all points of view,’
says deputy chief of staff of the Turkish General Staff Gen. Ilker
Basbug

Relations with Azerbaijan have major importance for Turkey, Gen.

Ilker Basbug, the second in command at the Turkish General Staff,
yesterday said upon his arrival in Baku.

“Azerbaijan is the number-one country for us from all points of view,”
Basbug said while expressing pleasure at being in Baku for the first
time. He said military relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan have
included a broad range of activities and that training is of particular
importance in this regard.

Turkey has been trying assist in the reconstruction of the Azerbaijani
military, and Basbug said his visit would offer an opportunity for
a discussion of ways to improve the current relationship between the
two countries.

“It is not possible to offer another example of our type of military
relationship,” the top Turkish commander said, emphasizing the
uniqueness of Turkish-Azerbaijani military relations.

He later met with Azerbaijan’s defense minister, Safar Abiyev.

During a March visit to Baku by the commander of Turkey’s naval
forces, Adm. Ozden Ornek, Turkey and Azerbaijan agreed to cooperate
in protecting strategic oil and gas pipelines, including the major
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which is set to begin operations
this year.

Abiyev then said in a statement that he hoped Turkey would remain
on Azerbaijan’s side in its long-standing conflict with Armenia
over Nagorno-Karabakh. The disputed enclave has been under ethnic
Armenian control since a war that ended in 1994 without a political
settlement. He also called on Turkish officials to keep its border
with Armenia closed, upon which Ornek vowed that Turkey would not
open its border to Armenia.