DM Monitoring
Ankara: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Azerbaijan is getting closer to victory against Armenia in its efforts to end the 30-yearslong occupation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Erdoğan was speaking at the 7th Ordinary Congress of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Kahramanmaraş.
He noted that he spoke with his “brother,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in a phone call and that the latter told him about the positive developments in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“They have been away from their occupied lands for 30 years, but now, they will hopefully reunite with their occupied lands,” Erdoğan said, in reference to Armenia’s three-decade occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan. Following the breakout of fresh clashes on Sept. 27, Armenia has repeatedly attacked Azerbaijani civilians and its military forces, violating three humanitarian cease-fire agreements since Oct. 10. Azerbaijan has liberated over 200 villages from Armenian occupation to date.
World powers including France, Russia and the United States have called for a sustainable cease-fire. Ankara, meanwhile, has supported Baku’s right to self-defense and demanded the withdrawal of Armenia’s occupying forces.
Four United Nations Security Council resolutions and two more from the U.N. General Assembly, in addition to calls by multiple international organizations, demand the “immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces” from Azerbaijani territory.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) also refers to the territory as being under the occupation of Armenian forces.
About 20% of Azerbaijan’s territory – including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions – has been under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades. The Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – co-chaired by France, Russia and the U.S. – was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict but to no avail. A cease-fire, however, was agreed to in 1994.
Erdoğan also said Turkey has been standing up against several types of oppression while preserving and protecting its interests in the region.
