BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 31. Claims against Azerbaijan regarding the Lachin-Khankendi road are unfair, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a joint press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov, Trend reports.
"The Lachin-Khankendi road is Azerbaijani territory. Azerbaijan has the right to take any actions it deems necessary on its own land," he noted.
In order to prevent the transportation of manpower, ammunition, mines, as well as other military equipment from Armenia for illegal Armenian armed groups on the territory of Azerbaijan (which weren't withdrawn contrary to the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020), and as an adequate response to the unilateral establishment of a border checkpoint by Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan on April 22, 2023 at the entrance to the Lachin-Khankendi road contrary to the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020, on April 23 this year, the units of the State Border Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan set up a border checkpoint in its sovereign territories, on the border with Armenia, at the beginning of the Lachin-Khankendi road.
Notwithstanding the facilitation of the passage of Azerbaijani Karabakh's Armenian residents by Azerbaijan, the personnel of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as well as of the Russian Peacekeeping Contingent, through the checkpoint, Armenia, for the purpose of continuing its illegal acts in the territories of Azerbaijan, spread false claims on the "tense humanitarian situation in the region".
Moreover, Armenia committed provocations by opening fire on Azerbaijani border guards on June 15, attempting smuggling, and dispatchingcargo vehicles to the territory of Azerbaijan on July 26 without prior agreement.