Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28
By Orkhan Quluzade – Trend:
Turkey shares the sorrow of the Azerbaijani people over deaths of its servicemen during the recent battles on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, said Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim during a meeting of Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Yildirim noted that the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been a bleeding wound for many years.
“The Azerbaijani territories were occupied by Armenia and this problem hasn’t been solved yet. Azerbaijan’s sorrow is Turkey’s sorrow and Azerbaijan’s happiness is Turkey’s happiness,” he said.
“I would like to stress once again that Turkey will always support Azerbaijan in its fair case,” added the prime minister.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
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