From alliance to ‘soft conquest’: the anatomy of the Turkish-Azerbaijani military alliance before and after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war

Military cooperation has been one of the milestones in Turkish-Azerbaijani relations since the early 1990s. A qualitatively new phase began in 2010 after the signing of the strategic agreement which not only fixed the ʹcasus foederisʹ clause but also significantly increased the scope and volume of cooperation. Military cooperation underwent a qualitative change and Turkeyʹs participation in the modernization of the Azerbaijani army gained key importance. The goal of this article is to identify the qualitative changes and transformations in military cooperation and examine their direct and indirect impact on the process of transformation of the identity of Azerbaijani society.