Experts on closure of the Gabala radar station

The Gabala radar had no use for Azerbaijan from the military point of view and in terms of impact on the environment. Therefore, the termination of this object should be considered a positive political decision. This opinion was expressed to the agency Turan by the military expert Uzeir Jafarov.

However, he doubts that Russia voluntarily waives the radar, which allowed Moscow to maintain its military presence in Azerbaijan. "Certainly, Russia leaves with a foul sludge, and this will affect the bilateral relations,” he said.

As for the future of the radar, then to Azerbaijan, it is not a military value, and the country has no resources for its operation. The main source of military threat is Armenia. Azerbaijani defense is able to repulse possible air strikes.

  Jafarov does not believe in the fact that Azerbaijan will provide the Gabala radar to third countries, refraining from actions that may lead to irritation of Moscow. In his view, the object is likely to be dismantled.

The political analyst Eldar Namazov agrees that the object is for Azerbaijan of no military importance. The low rent made it uneconomical for the country.

In this case, there was a unique situation, when Azerbaijan provided a military facility to the military ally of Armenia.

Namazov believes that Moscow is losing its military presence in Azerbaijan, and this will have negative consequences for the diplomatic and political relations. However, time will tell how much negative they are. 

Head of the Centre "East-West" Arastun Orujlu believes that closing the Gabala radar station is part of a regional and global agreement. He pointed out that the decision was taken after Vladimir Putin's visit to Turkey, where he said that Moscow was not against the deployment of Patriot systems on the borders of Turkey and actually refused to support the Assad regime.

In the view of Orujlu, Russia received in return some assurance of the West and they relate to the post-conflict situation in Syria, where the Russian military base will remain.

 "Azerbaijan has made no decision to withdraw Russia from Gabala," Orujlu said, when asked about the possible consequences of closing the radar for the bilateral relations.

Perhaps Russia received guarantees that the site will not be shared with anyone. But he did not rule out that the object will be saved.

The Deputy Chief of Staff and Head of External Relations in the Presidential Administration Novruz Mammadov told a number of local media that the closure will have no negative impact on the bilateral relations.

He made it clear that the reason for the closure was just a financial, not political issue. "We had a long time to convince our Russian partners that the rent on the radar was symbolic. Therefore, we wished that this issue was solved on new conditions, and the cooperation was continued, but they did not agree. However, I believe that this will not affect the bilateral relations,” said Mammadov.

Concerning the future of the radar, Mammadov said that Gabala is a center of tourism and it is possible that the military installation will generally be eliminated.

At the same time, he stressed that the fate of the station will be decided later, but ruled that the radar will be leased to someone else. -03B06-