Turkey is planning to launch a military base in Nakhichevan in an effort to establish a deeper cooperation with the Azerbaijani state, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Arman Navasardyan said today, commenting on the developments in the region.



The diplomat addressed particularly the Turkish-Azerbaijani military drills, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s upcoming trip to Moscow (scheduled for May).



“The Turkish political thought is sending a specific kind of message to the Republic of Armenia in the first place, and also to its sponsor, the Russian Federation. Given the close cooperation between Armenia and Russia - which is developing symmetrically with that between Turkey and Azerbaijan - Turkey is offering a plan for a deeper cooperation, expressing an intention to launch a military base in Nakhicevan,” he added.



Navasardyan cited the Kurdish issue as a possible reason encouraging country to embark on the military base project in an attempt to block Kurdish movements in that part of its border. Meantime he warned of possible Kurdish attempts to move closer towards the Armenian border. “What the Turkish hypothesis says is that they can create a buffer zone, relocating Turks in those territories of Azerbaijan which are on the border between the country and [Nagorno-]Karabakh,” he added.