What Azerbaijan did was only liberating its own lands: Turkey

Turkish defense minister on Saturday said what Azerbaijan did was only liberating its own lands and some western politicians’ claims against the Azerbaijani army that they “destroyed” Karabakh is a great mistake.

“These unrealistic statements are completely false evaluations. The Azerbaijani army did not do anything there against the international law,” minister Hulusi Akar said.

According to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s cabinet member, the Azerbaijani army just liberated their own lands which had been under three-decade long occupation by Armenia.

He added that liberating its lands under occupation is a “sacred duty” for a country.

“Accusing the Azerbaijani army of ‘destroying’ is really great negligence, a great mistake.”

Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied eight adjacent regions including Nagorno-Karabakh, territories recognized as parts of Azerbaijan.

Tensions between two countries reached new heights on 27 September, when clashes between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces broke out over the eight regions.

Both countries are former Soviet republics.

On 10 November, the two countries signed a Russia-brokered agreement to end the fighting and work towards a comprehensive resolution.