Turkey is building a modular military base on its border with Armenia, on Mount Ararat, Turkish media reported over the weekend.
The military base is being built at an altitude almost 7,000 feet above sea level and will be equipped with modern night vision surveillance technologies and other weapon systems.
According to press reports the military base is being built “to fight terrorism.”
Armenia and Turkey have been engaged in active negotiations to normalize relations, with the eventual stated goal of opening borders and establish diplomatic relations. Just last week, it was announced that Yerevan and Ankara will begin air cargo transport as part of an agreement reached in July.
While the normalization talks are supposed to be advancing without preconditions, Ankara continues to invoke the interests of Azerbaijan in these talks, often threatening and criticizing Armenia.
Turkey said on Sunday that it will continue to defend Azerbaijan at all costs.
“Through its actions, Armenia is threatening peace in the region,” Turkey’s parliament chair Mustafa Sentop told his Azerbaijani counterpart Sahiba Gafarova during a meeting Antalya, the Anadolu news agency reported.
Sentop said that Ankara expects Yerevan to fulfill the obligations it has assumed under the trilateral agreements between Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
