For the past two days, Turkish and Azerbaijani Air Force planes have been flying frequently between the two countries. These active movements have been observed both on Armenian and international platforms. Military expert Alen Ghulyan wrote about this on Facebook.
The flights
The flights of the Turkish Air Force (TUAF) to Azerbaijan and in the opposite direction are not a new thing. However, since September 23, Turkish warplanes have started flying more frequently to Azerbaijan.
On September 23, the TUAF517 C-130B Hercules flew to Turkey from the Ganja airport in Azerbaijan.
On September 24, Turkish Airbus A400M-180 aircraft made at least four flights to Azerbaijan and in the opposite direction. The first plane landed in Baku in the morning, returned to Turkey in the second half of the day and landed at Kayseri airport. At the same time, another plane landed at the Ganja airport in Azerbaijan. The plane took off from the air base located in Tekirdağ. The same evening the plane returned to Turkey.
The other A400M-180 aircraft with registration number 17-0078 landed at Azerbaijan’s Yevlakh Airport and returned to Kayseri airport in the evening. The base of the Turkish Air Force Military Transport Aviation Command is located here. The fourth plane landed at Baku airport the same day and returned to Kayseri in the evening.
On the evening of September 25, at around 18:15 Armenian time, a TUAF731 plane of the Turkish Air Force was flying from Turkey to Azerbaijan from Haji Zeynalabdin military airport, which landed again at Kayseri airport.
At about the same time, another A400M-180 aircraft from Turkish Tekridağ Airport landed at Ganja Airport.
Unidentified flying objects on the Armenian-Turkish border
On September 24, the website flightradar24.com also recorded an unknown flying object approaching the Turkish-Armenian border. After midnight it flies irregularly not far from the border, then reaches the borderline from the side of the Ararat Province. When looking at the image several times on the radar, in some cases it can be seen how the object crosses the Armenian-Turkish border, and in other cases it only reaches the border and returns. It is not clear in which case the system shows an error.
A few hours before that, three unknown objects were flying not far from the Armenian-Turkish border. The website caucasus.liveuamap.com wrote about this, noting that two of them are unmanned aerial vehicles, probably Bayraktar TB2s. According to the source, the aircraft may be E-7A Peace Eagle AEW & C (hex: 4B829F). We could not find any evidence to support or refute this assertion, but it should be noted that, unlike the previous case, these objects did not attempt to approach or cross the border.
Movement of Azerbaijani planes
The Ilyushin-76 (IL-76) plane belonging to the Azerbaijani Air Force flew from Azerbaijan to Tekirdağ Çorlu military airport not far from Istanbul on September 24, then returned to Turkey, then to the Israeli city of Eliat, and eventually returned to Azerbaijan. On September 25, the plane left Azerbaijan for Ukraine.
On September 24, Silk Way West IL-76TD-90VD, 4K-AZ101 transport aircraft flew from Azerbaijan to Turkey, then to Israel, and then in the opposite direction. One of the cargo helicopters of the same airline (registration number 4Kaz115) made several flights to the Caspian Sea. The trajectory of the helicopter ends at sea. It probably makes transportations to warships.
Silk Way West is an Azerbaijani private carrier whose cargo planes, however, are allowed to transport military equipment.
Thus, in recent days, Turkish and Azerbaijani Air Force planes, especially the Turkish Air Force, frequently fly between the two countries. Most likely, military equipment is supplied to Azerbaijan through these flights. This is what the Turkey-Azerbaijan-Israel flights indicate to, as Israel has become the main supplier of weapons to Azerbaijan in recent years.
Ani Avetisyan