Image: Eric Trump Commentary X @erictrumpfan1
By Open Chronicle Staff with Agencies | March 5, 2026
BAKU — The Middle East conflagration has officially breached the Caucasus. On Thursday morning, Iranian kamikaze drones struck an airport in Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave, a move that threatens to draw a key regional energy player and Israeli ally into the rapidly expanding war.
Video footage verified by The Telegraph shows a large explosion at the Nakhchivan airport, which shares a direct border with Iran. A second drone reportedly crashed near a school in a residential area, though casualties remain unconfirmed.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has said several drones fired from Iran have hit its territory, one striking a terminal building in Nakhchivan International Airport and another landing near a school building in the village of Shakarabad.
Al Jazeera's Dmitry Medvedenko reports. pic.twitter.com/gEdOFqHWtC— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 5, 2026
Baku Vows Retaliation
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense issued a blistering statement shortly after the debris was cleared, signaling that it is actively “preparing necessary retaliatory measures.”
“These acts of aggression will not go unanswered,” the ministry stated. “Azerbaijan will take all sovereign steps required to protect its territorial integrity and its citizens.”
Footage from the inside of Nakhchivan Airport in Azerbaijan after the Iranian kamikaze drone crashed short while ago
— حسن سجواني 🇦🇪 Hassan Sajwani (@Sajwani) March 5, 2026
The “Israeli Foothold” Concern
Tehran’s decision to strike Azerbaijan is not a random escalation. For years, Iran has warned Baku against its burgeoning military partnership with Israel. Azerbaijan is a primary supplier of oil to the Jewish state and, in return, has purchased billions of dollars in high-tech Israeli weaponry, including the “Harop” loitering munitions and “Barak-8” air defense systems.
Tehran has long accused Baku of allowing Israeli intelligence and special forces to use Azerbaijani territory, specifically airfields in the south and Nakhchivan, to stage surveillance and sabotage operations against Iranian nuclear and military sites. With U.S. and Israeli jets currently pounding Tehran, Iran appears to be preemptively striking any potential “launching pads” in its periphery.
A Regional Tangle: Turkey and NATO
The strike on Nakhchivan puts Turkey in a precarious position. Under the Shusha Declaration, Turkey is a formal security guarantor for Azerbaijan. If Baku invokes its mutual defense pact with Ankara, a NATO member would be directly pulled into the conflict.
This follows a tense Wednesday where NATO air defenses were forced to intercept an Iranian ballistic missile heading toward Turkish airspace. While the Iranian army denied targeting Turkey, the Nakhchivan strike suggests Tehran is no longer concerned with maintaining the neutrality of its northern neighbors.
The War’s Sixth Day: A Widening Circle
As the conflict nears the end of its first week, the “front lines” have effectively disappeared. Hostilities now span from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and the Caucasus:
-
The Gulf: Major strikes on Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
-
The Seas: A U.S. submarine’s sinking of an Iranian frigate off Sri Lanka.
-
The North: Missile and drone incursions into Turkey and Azerbaijan.
With Baku now weighing its military options, the risk of a multi-front ground war involving state actors beyond Israel and the U.S. has never been higher.