Azerbaijan, Turkey set to advance defence industry
By Vafa Ismayilova
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Baku and Ankara will resolutely continue joint efforts to promote cooperation in defence industry, Azertag reported on June 15.
He made the remarks after the ceremony of signing the joint declaration with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on June 15 in the city of Shusha liberated from the Armenian occupation in a 44-day war in 2020.
"From now on, our ties in the field of the defence industry will be further developed. Along with this development, Azerbaijan will have the opportunity to become not only a market but also a production center in this process. Our strength is the strength of Azerbaijan and the strength of Azerbaijan is ours," Erdogan said.
He stressed that the two countries are further strengthening ties in the field of the defence industry using technological transfers and joint production projects.
The Turkish president expressed his special gratitude to Aliyev who earlier awarded Baykar General Manager Lutfi Haluk Bayraktar the Karabakh Order.
"On behalf of our family, I would also like to express my special gratitude to him. Of course, unmanned aerial vehicles have done some serious work here," he said.
Under the Azerbaijani presidential order, "Bayraktar has been awarded this high award for his contribution to the strengthening of fraternal relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey, the development of cooperation, and to the just cause of ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan", Azertag reported on June 15.
On April 1, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received Chief Technology Officer of Turkey’s Baykar Company Selcuk Baytraktar in Baku. At the meeting, Aliyev stressed that Bayraktar was at the forefront of the successes of Turkey’s defence industry and underlined the role of Baykar Company's products in destroying enemy equipment during the liberation of Azerbaijani territories from Armenia’s occupation in a 44-day war in Karabakh in 2020.
In January, Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev said that Azerbaijan witnessed the successful result of the military-technical cooperation with Turkey and the effectiveness of the Bayraktar UAVs that Azerbaijan used in the battles during the war.
The top official underlined that the successful result of cooperation and effectiveness of the UAVs are based on great scientific potential. Hajiyev said that the two countries established close cooperation in the scientific field as well.
"Our main goal for the coming period is to strengthen this cooperation," the presidential aide noted.
Turkey and Russia are represented with an equal number of servicemen in the joint center to monitor the situation in and around Nagorno-Karabakh under a trilateral peace agreement signed by Azerbaijan, Russia, and Armenia on November 10 to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
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