Azernews.Az

By Aisha Jabbarova

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have congratulated each other on Azerbaijan`s victory in the Nagorno-Karabakh war, following the peace deal that ended the long-term military conflict with Armenia.

In a phone conversation held on November 10, President Ilham Aliyev once again thanked Erdogan and the Turkish people for their political and moral support for Azerbaijan during the war that resumed on September 27.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed gratitude to the Azerbaijani people for the high appreciation of his country`s support.

The Azerbaijani and Turkish presidents said that the two friendly and brotherly countries and peoples will continue to stand by each other.

During the phone conversation, the sides hailed the establishment of a Turkish-Russian peacekeeping center to monitor the ceasefire and expressed confidence that this center will contribute to ensuring lasting peace in the region.

Earlier today, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu congratulated his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov over the new Nagorno-Karabakh peace deal.

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement to end the military conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the early hours of 10 November,

Under the deal, Russian peacekeepers are deployed in the region to patrol frontlines. Turkey will also take part in the peacekeeping process. Turkey and Russia are going to sign a joint agreement on their peacekeeping mission.

About 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's territory – including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions – remained under the Armenian occupation for nearly three decades. Four UN Security Council resolutions urged the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the invading forces from the occupied territories.

Ninety-three Azerbaijani civilians have been killed and hundreds of others have been injured in Armenia's indiscriminate missile attacks on Azerbaijani civilian settlements and cities since September 27.

Since the counter-offensive operations began on September 27, the Azerbaijani army liberated five city centres, three settlements and over 220 villages, as well as some strategic heights from the occupation of Armenian forces.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France had been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts resulted in no progress as Armenia refused to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

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