Turkey support Azerbaijan openly


Azerbaijan 30 September: Turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan seems intent on burning bridges, he's now wading into the conflict in the caucasus openly backing azerbaijan even though it means antagonizing one of his few remaining allies.

 russian president vladimir putin let me first tell you what happened an old border dispute has flared up armenia and azerbaijan are former soviet republics now they're on the brink of war they've been firing at each other.

 russia wants them to calm down and talk but erdogan continues to stoke the fire he backs azerbaijan which is muslim dominated he blames armenia which has majority christians.

 the turkish president says armenia is the biggest threat to peace in the region turkey conducted joint military drills with azerbaijan last month it has also established an army and air force base within the country to support azerbaijan.

 this aggressive posturing puts erdogan at odds with vladimir putin the russian president is already dealing with a full-blown crisis in belarus he's keen to avoid another one in the caucasus ,

so why is erdogan on a collision course with putin why is he intent on taking sides when the whole world is urging restraint for the same reason which made him trigger the conflict with greece energy he wants oil and gas in 2019.

 azerbaijan delivered 9.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas to turkey it was delivered through the south caucasus pipeline which is part of a u.s backed energy corridor the region is also rich in crude oil reserves which are exported to an energy terminal on turkey's mediterranean,

 coast in short most of azerbaijan's energy exports end up in turkey and this fits perfectly into erdogan's plan of making turkey a crucial cog in the energy trade between the caspian sea and europe now most of the pipelines in the region run perilously close to the disputed border if azerbaijan takes control of this land erdogan would be able to dictate energy exports to europe ,

but that's not all there are few cultural and historical considerations also playing out here azerbaijan's former president once described the relationship as one nation two states turkey was the first nation to recognize azerbaijan this was back in 1991.

 last month when tensions flared between greece and turkey azerbaijan was unequivocal in its support for ankara on the other hand turkey's relations with armenia have always been troublesome.

 the armenian genocide at the hands of the ottoman empire is not something that this country will forgive easily or forget armenia claims as many as 1.5 million people were killed or expelled turkey on its part rejects.

 The use of the word genocide for what happened between 1914 and 1923 so by positioning himself with azerbaijan erdogan has put himself in a very tight spot most of the world leaders including vladimir putin want both sides to stand down if azerbaijan and armenia .

 opt for diplomacy erdogan's war path may end up denying him a seat at the negotiating table .