"Baku has never aimed for serious political and legal closeness with the West"

Recently, intelligence chiefs from the world's leading countries have visited Baku. While there has been little public information on these visits, the consecutive nature of these trips to Azerbaijan has raised many questions.

On October 7, it was announced that two more corps commanders of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces were relieved of their duties. Major General Munasib Babayev, commander of the 4th Army Corps (Baku), and Colonel Oruc Abdullayev, commander of the 3rd Corps (Shamkir), were dismissed from their positions.

On September 30, a temporary commission on foreign interference and hybrid threats was established at a session of the parliament. MP Ramid Namazov has been appointed as the head of the commission.

President Ilham Aliyev's recent address to the National Assembly served as yet another stark reminder of Azerbaijan’s complex geopolitical situation. The President spoke candidly about ongoing ideological and geopolitical provocations from abroad and the need to strengthen national defense. However, it was his remarks on the continued closure of Azerbaijan’s land borders that sparked the most intense discussions in political circles.