Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

A large group of flight and engineering-technical staff of the Turkish Air Force has arrived in Azerbaijan to participate in TurAz Qartalı-2017 joint exercises.

The exercises, to be held in Azerbaijan on September 18-30, will involve up to 30 aircrafts of the Air Forces of Azerbaijan and Turkey, including MiG-29, F-16, Su-25, C-130 Herkules, CASA CN-235 aircrafts, as well as Mi-35, Mi-17 and Sikorsky S-70 helicopters.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry reported that staff arrangement, exercise planning and other organizational work are currently underway in order to be prepared for the exercises.

Azerbaijan and Turkey enjoy strategic relations in many fields, including the military sphere. Military cooperation between the brotherly countries dates back to 1992 when they signed an agreement on military education. Since then, the Azerbaijani and Turkish governments have been closely cooperating in both defense and security fields.

So far, the Azerbaijani and Turkish armed forces have hold regular drills, featuring various tactical and combat tasks both on Turkish and Azerbaijani territories.

This May, joint exercises of the two countries Armed Forces were held in Azerbaijan. The aim of the exercises was to improve coordination through the exchange of experience between the Armed Forces, as well as to achieve the interoperability of the military units of the two countries through joint headquarters planning, improving the readiness and capabilities of the units to conduct operations.

Later, in June, the two countries had military exercises in Nakhchivan.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz