Most Azeri experts consider the Azerbaijan-NATO cooperation level to be low, whereas others believe that nothing better can as yet be afforded.

A poll conducted by the Baku-based Zerkalo (Mirror) newspaper, which involved 50 local experts, political analysts, servicemen, journalists and NGO leaders.

Most of the Azeri experts believe that, although both Azerbaijan and NATO plan to develop partnership, they are not yet ready to establish higher-level ties.

The respondents also believe that, despite a great potential, the bilateral cooperation is not properly developing.

Some of the respondents are pessimistic about further normal cooperation between Azerbaijan and NATO. According to them, the cooperation level is “inversely proportional” to Russia’s influence on the region. “Amid Russia’s decreasing influence on the Caucasus, Azerbaijan was intensifying its cooperation with NATO. Russia’s authority in the region now can by no means be compared with that 10-15 years ago – its influence is much stronger now. Russia is jealous of NATO’s presence in the region and has clearly voiced its position,” some respondents said.

The experts believe that issues of the Azerbaijan-NATO cooperation are being considered in the context of the reaction by “Her Excellency Russia”, the aim being to “enrage the bear.” Others think NATO is trying to produce the “sixth finger effect”. For some reasons or others, most of the respondents speak of “complications” in the Azerbaijan-NATO relations.

According to the respondents, the “dismantling” of Turkey’s military system by the Recep Erdogan-headed Government, with the United States’ assistance, creates serious problems for the formation of a West-type military system in Azerbaijan, as it was the “Turkish model” that Azerbaijan was to apply in its integration into NATO. “However, a confrontation between the political authorities and the army in a NATO-member state, playing an ethnic card as a means of pressuring the country before Azerbaijan’s very eyes allows some influential circles, including Russia, dictate their terms,” the newspaper writes.