On Sunday, Azeri military officials accompanied their Turkish counterparts to Heydar Aliyev Airport in Baku, to conclude the bilateral Mustafa Kamal Atatürk 2019 military drills. The events started on 01 May, and according to official footage and further analysis conducted by military news portal Razm.info, included the participation of T-72 and T-90 tanks, BTR-82 (received from Russia last year), Israeli-designed SandCat armoured personnel carriers, MANPADS, heavy mortars, Mi-24 and Mi-35 helicopter gunships, as well as Mi-8 and Mi17 transport helicopters.
The military exercises were carried out at a large military training ground west of Baku, where numerous major events of the type have been conducted in the past. The area in question, shared between the Khizi, Absheron and Gobustan districts is the least populated of Azerbaijan, with around 35 villages in an area of approximately 4.500 square km. On 10 April, military gunships carried out live-fire exercises in the same area.
Geographic location of the military training ground
The event was well exhibited in Azeri news portals, particularly the Ministry of Defence, which dedicated at least six articles to the events (from first to last in this order 1,2,3,4,5,6 ), something that very seldom happens.
Official photos from the exercises
Supervising the events were the Azeri Vice Chief of Staff Lt Gen Nizam Osmanov and the commander of the Turkish troop contingent, Lt Gen Veli Tarakçı. According to military authorities in Baku, the exercises were aimed at boosting bilateral military co-operation between Azerbaijan and Turkey, building a framework of co-ordination and an exchange of tactics and methods between armed units of the two countries.
Troop gathering (right) and Mi-24 gunship firing missile during training
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