Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan will have to liberate its Armenia-occupied territories "by other means" if the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not settled through the ongoing negotiations brokered by the OSCE Minsk Group, Defense Minister Safar Abiyev has said, implying a military solution of the long-standing dispute.

"That is why Azerbaijan is strengthening its armed forces," he said in a meeting with the chief of the Turkish General Staff, Gen. Necdet Ozel in Baku on Tuesday, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war in the early 1990s. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since a fragile ceasefire was signed in 1994. Numerous rounds of Minsk Group-brokered negotiations have been fruitless so far.

Discussions at the meeting also focused on ways of deepening Azerbaijani-Turkish military cooperation. The parties stressed the contribution of Azerbaijani-Turkish military relations to the cooperation both within NATO and in bilateral format.

This story is published by AzerNEWS Weekly under a project funded by the Foundation for State Assistance to the Development of the Media under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.