Baku, Azerbaijan, June 20
By Ilhama Isabalayeva – Trend:
Turkey is confident that Karabakh will be liberated from Armenian occupation and Azerbaijanis will return to their native places, the Chief Ombudsman of Turkey, Sheref Malkoc, said on June 20 during his speech at the 15th Baku international conference of ombudsmen on "the Role of national human rights institutions in ensuring and promoting legal equality".
Malkoc added that Turkey and Azerbaijan are brotherly countries which are closely connected with each other and said that these close ties will continue in the future as well.
He noted that today more than 65 million people in the world cannot return to their homes, and the main reason for this is wars and conflicts.
He said currently there are 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
Malkoc added that to date, the Turkish state has spent on Syrian refugees up to $30 billion.
"The refugees are undergoing free medical examination, and more than a million of them were operated for free in Turkish hospitals," Malkoc said.
He noted that, today hundreds of thousands of Syrians are engaged in small business, as citizens of Turkey.
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.