By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Azerbaijan’s popular Russian language news website Day.Az carries an article by Abdul Karimkhanov, editor-in-chief and expert. The original article can be found at the link below:

The large-scale Azerbaijani-Turkish joint drills have added fuel to the fire between the enemies of the two countries. Everything is clear with Armenians - after their heavy defeat in the Second Karabakh War, they shudder at the mere mention of the word "Azerbaijan". But now we are talking about Iran, which has crossed all boundaries with its anti-Azerbaijani rhetoric and is desperate to stay in the region. The drills are held along the border with Iran, which is an open message to the mullocratic regime. And Tehran is well aware of this.

Amid the new geopolitical realities in the region, the military and political influence of Azerbaijan and Turkiye has significantly increased. This surely worries Iran, which is zealous about any successes of the two fraternal countries. Thus, in October, Iran decided to demonstrate its strength by starting military drills on the border with Azerbaijan, where it practiced crossing rivers with armored units using pontoon bridges.

The devil is not as bad as they make it out to be. In terms of logistics, the Iranian army has remained at the level of the 1970s due to the sanctions imposed for many years. Iranian military’s October drills, during which they practiced driving pontoon bridges and crossing the Araz River on the border with Azerbaijan, vividly demonstrated the truth of the above-mentioned statement.

Today, Iran is directly responsible for the destruction of Ukrainian cities, energy infrastructure, and civilian casualties. Although Tehran had previously denied transferring drones to Russia for the war in Ukraine, the Iranian government was finally forced to acknowledge the supply of its drones. This did not go unnoticed by the West, which imposed further anti-Iranian sanctions.

At first, the topic of Iranian drones caused a lot of trouble for the Ukrainian military, but Ukraine’s Armed Forces quickly adapted to the situation and learned how to shoot them down. As a result, more than 85% of Iranian drones are destroyed on their route. The fact is that the Iranian UAVs are hastily copied American drones, which are quite primitive in comparison with the American original ones. Hence the low efficiency of Iranian kamikaze drones.

And if Iran seriously thought flexing its muscles would make Azerbaijan back down and stop defending its national interests, they were deeply mistaken.

"During the year, we have held more than 10 joint military drills with Turkiye. They have been organized both in Turkiye and Azerbaijan. This is an important factor in regional stability and our security. All those who hatched hostile plans against Azerbaijan or Turkiye must know that the Turkish army is not only the Turkish army, but also our army, and our army is not only our army but also the Turkish army. Those who plan provocations on our border and try to intimidate us should never forget this," President Ilham Aliyev said on November 25 speaking at the international conference "Along the Middle Corridor: Geopolitics, Security and Economy".

Since the 1990s, Iran has supported Armenia and defended its interests. When Azerbaijan was going through hard times in the first years of its independence and faced Armenian occupation, Iran was developing political, trade and economic and humanitarian relations with Armenia as if nothing had happened and joint projects were implemented between the two countries. Iranian leaders regularly embraced Armenian executioners such as Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, whose hands are soaked in the blood of Azerbaijani people. For 30 years, Iran turned a blind eye to the destruction of the cultural heritage of the Azerbaijani people, and the destruction and desecration of mosques in the occupied territories. Iranian companies were very closely involved in the plundering of the subsoil of Karabakh. That is, Iran was interested in a weak Azerbaijan and, on the contrary, in the strengthening of Armenia. Is this what a country claiming Islamic values and Muslim brotherhood does?

Moreover, the leadership of Iran was one of the last to support Azerbaijan, once it was convinced that the fate of the war had already been decided and the capitulation of Armenia was inevitable. But during the war, Tehran used all kinds of means against our country, from sending weapons to Armenia to open threats.

If the military-political leadership of Iran completely loses its reason and decides on armed aggression against Azerbaijan, then the provision of the Shusha Declaration will come into force, which states that "in case of a threat or aggression by a third state or states against its independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability or security of internationally recognized borders, the parties will hold joint consultations and in order to eliminate this threat or aggression will implement initiatives in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter, as well will provide each other with the necessary assistance in accordance with the UN Charter”.

Thus, Azerbaijan is not alone and any sophisticated efforts of Iran are doomed to failure. The military drills of Azerbaijan and Turkiye are a stern warning to Iran and now the ball is on Tehran's side, which has to realize that regaining its former influence in the region through rapprochement with Yerevan is a wrong decision and is fraught with destabilizing the situation in the region.