After the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh, it’s somewhat pointless to prove that Turkey has military presence in Azerbaijan. This is what researcher of the Center for Strategic Studies at Yerevan State University Edgar Elbakyan during today’s conference entitled “Armenia and Turkey in the South Caucasus: Realities and Risks”.

According to him, a vacuum has emerged in Azerbaijan after the war.

“The ethnos of Azerbaijan has been built under the principle of revenge over and hatred towards the Armenians,” he stated, adding that Turkey has invaded the South Caucasus several times and that this is definitely a problem for Azerbaijan.

“The Azerbaijanis need to try to establish balance through Russia. The Turkish presence also implies the withdrawal of Russia. Turkey wants to have its share of the assistance that it provided to Azerbaijan to achieve victory. With a military base in the so-called de facto territory of Azerbaijan, Russia will constantly remind this and win dividends,” Elbakyan clarified.