More than 3,500 troops from Azerbaijan, Turkey and Uzbekistan trained together for the first time this week, in drills that ran from the mountains of the Karabakh region to the Caspian Sea.
The exercise, called Power of Unity-2026, was held for the first time in the Hojavend district of Karabakh and at training areas in Baku, Nakhchivan and Azerbaijan’s part of the Caspian. Eight more countries, Iran among them, sent observers: Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Serbia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Georgia, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.
At the Qızılqaya military training area, the three armies fielded more than 130 unmanned vehicles, over 70 armored vehicles, more than 90 artillery systems and over 20 aviation assets. Drones ran through nearly every scenario. Troops practiced repelling swarm attacks, striking advancing columns, conducting surveillance and delivering ammunition and supplies by air. They combined unmanned systems with artillery, aviation and electronic warfare, and rehearsed breaching defensive positions and anti-tank trenches, clearing minefields and advancing under armor.
The planners also wrote in threats that played no part in older war games. Soldiers responded to simulated cyberattacks and online disinformation, assaulted what organizers described as terrorist positions in mountain terrain, cleared settlements, set up checkpoints and used drones to spot and stop attempted border crossings.
At sea, forces practiced freeing a vessel and an offshore facility, rescuing hostages and landing ashore to destroy a simulated terrorist base.
Turkey’s defense minister, Yasar Guler, said the exercise succeeded “in both its planning and execution” and struck a careful note on what it was for. “We will prepare in the best possible way, but we will live in peace,” he said.
Azerbaijan’s defense minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, said the land, naval and air operations raised the combat readiness of all three armies. Uzbekistan’s defense minister, Lieutenant General Shukhrat Kholmukhamedov, said his troops had shown “high combat readiness” and the ability to carry out missions alongside the other forces.
Azerbaijan and Turkey call their defense ties an alliance under the Shusha Declaration of 2021, signed a year after the war in which Azerbaijan retook much of Karabakh. Baku and Tashkent have also widened their cooperation in military training, defense technology and military education, and the exercise was the clearest display yet of that three-way alignment.
The drill was followed by a trilateral meeting in Shusha of the defense ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia, the 13th such session. General Hasanov, Mr. Guler and Georgia’s vice prime minister and defense minister, Irakli Chikovani, discussed military cooperation and regional security. General Hasanov called the three-country format “an important platform for regional stability, security, and development.”