BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 16. The Turkic world is not limited to the borders of Turkic states, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said speaking at the Extraordinary Summit of the Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Ankara, Trend reports.
"The Turkic world covers a more extensive geography. The number of Azerbaijanis living in the world exceeds 50 million, and only 10 million live in the independent Republic of Azerbaijan.
The decision of the Soviet government in November 1920 to separate West Zangezur, our historical land, from Azerbaijan and hand it over to Armenia led to the geographical separation of the Turkic world. By 1991, all Azerbaijanis were driven out forcefully of the territory of present-day Armenia.
As in Karabakh and East Zangezur, Armenia has also destroyed our cultural heritage, mosques and historical sites in present-day Armenia – in Western Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani community has repeatedly appealed to UNESCO to send a fact-finding mission to monitor the Azerbaijani people's cultural heritage in present-day Armenia and expects a positive response from UNESCO," President Ilham Aliyev said.