Category: 2022

The region of Karabakh is located within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterated on Saturday amid renewed clashes between neighbors Baku and Yerevan.

Speaking to journalists about the recent escalation, Erdoğan said: "Azerbaijan naturally does not want any illegal armed elements on its territory.”

"We talked about these in detail with my brother Ilham (Aliyev) two days ago. First of all, we condemn the attack that caused the death of one of our Azerbaijani brothers,” he said.

Regarding the attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in London, Erdoğan said it was "unacceptable," adding: "We hope the incident will be investigated and perpetrators will be punished."

The embassy building in London was stormed by the Mahdi Servants Union, a Shiite Muslim organization based in London, according to U.K. media reports. Eight people were arrested after police reached the area.

“Nearly two years have passed since the trilateral statement. It is important for Armenia to fulfill its commitments here as soon as possible,” Erdoğan added.

Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, with the Armenian Army attacking civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violating several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.

During the 44-day conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and around 300 settlements and villages that had been occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

The fighting ended with a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020, which was seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia.

However, the cease-fire has been broken several times since then.

In January 2021, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a pact to develop economic ties and infrastructure to benefit the entire region. It also included the establishment of a trilateral working group in Karabakh.

After the conflict ended, Azerbaijan launched a massive reconstruction initiative in the liberated Karabakh region.

In July, Azerbaijan began the process of returning its people to land recaptured from Armenian forces in what Baku calls "The Great Return." The oil-rich country has vowed to repopulate the recaptured lands.

President Ilham Aliyev had for years promised to recapture lands lost in the 1990s and the first returns marked a symbolic moment for Azerbaijan.

Following renewed skirmishes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Karabakh earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called similarly on the leaders of both countries to seek "direct dialogue" to resolve the conflict.

Blinken held separate phone calls with Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Friday, according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

Several deaths and injuries were reported when fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh flared up again on Wednesday.

The Azerbaijani army said it had captured mountainous areas of the region and that Armenian fighters had been killed.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov will pay a visit to Turkey on Aug. 8-9, 2022, upon the invitation of Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to participate in the 13th Ambassadors Conference.

During his visit, Bayramov will address the Ambassadors Conference.

As tensions rise in the Karabakh region, Azerbaijan on Monday said Armenia targeted its military positions 10 times over the past 24 hours.

In six of the incidents, Armenian forces opened fire "from positions in the direction of the Basarkechar, Garakilsa and Gorus regions" on Azerbaijani military units "stationed in the direction of the Kalbajar and Lachin regions," the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"The other four cases were recorded as a result of periodic fire opened by the use of sniper rifles and various caliber weapons on the Azerbaijan Army positions, stationed in the direction of the Kalbajar, Goranboy and Fuzuli regions, by members of an illegal Armenian armed detachment in the territory of Azerbaijan, where the Russian peacekeepers are temporarily deployed," the statement said.

The ministry said there was no loss of personnel or military equipment, adding that the Azerbaijani military took "adequate retaliatory measures" in all cases.

It reiterated that the "Armenian military-political leadership bears all responsibility for the recent tension that occurred on the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, as well as in the territory of Azerbaijan, where the Russian peacekeepers are temporarily deployed."

Tensions have flared since an Azerbaijani soldier was killed by Armenian fire last week in the border region of Lachin, pushing Baku to launch a retaliatory operation against Armenian forces in Karabakh.

Relations between the former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

During the conflict in the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages that had been occupied by Armenia for nearly three decades.

The fighting ended with a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020, which was seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia.

However, the cease-fire has been broken several times since then.

Commenting on the renewed tensions in the Karabakh region, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday that Karabakh is located within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan.

Speaking to journalists about the recent escalation, Erdoğan said, "Azerbaijan naturally does not want any illegal armed elements on its territory."

"We talked about these in detail with my brother Ilham (Aliyev) two days ago. First of all, we condemn the attack that caused the death of one of our Azerbaijani brothers," he said.

In January 2021, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a pact to develop economic ties and infrastructure to benefit the entire region. It also included the establishment of a trilateral working group in Karabakh.

After the conflict ended, Azerbaijan launched a massive reconstruction initiative in the liberated Karabakh region.

In July, Azerbaijan began the process of returning its people to land recaptured from Armenian forces in what Baku calls "The Great Return." The oil-rich country has vowed to repopulate the liberated lands.

President Ilham Aliyev had for years promised to recapture lands lost in the 1990s and the first returns marked a symbolic moment for Azerbaijan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed the developments in Karabakh and security issues on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border in a phone call on Monday, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Kremlin last week called for restraint from both sides after Azerbaijan said its forces had foiled an Armenian attack near Karabakh, formerly referred to as Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan announced that it has regained control of several strategic locations in the Karabakh region, in a new escalation after Armenia attacked and killed an Azerbaijani soldier.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly pointed to Armenia's failure to meet the provisions of the Nov. 10, 2020 agreement signed by the two nations plus Russia, drawing particular attention to how Armenian armed groups have not yet pulled out of Azerbaijani territories in Karabakh, said a ministry statement.

Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, with the Armenian Army attacking civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violating several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.

During the 44-day conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and around 300 settlements and villages that had been occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

The fighting ended with a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020, which was seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia.

In January 2021, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a pact to develop economic ties and infrastructure to benefit the entire region. It also included the establishment of a trilateral working group in Karabakh.

After the conflict ended, Azerbaijan launched a massive reconstruction initiative in the liberated Karabakh region.

In July, Azerbaijan began the process of returning its people to land recaptured from Armenian forces in what Baku calls "The Great Return." The oil-rich country has vowed to repopulate the recaptured lands.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had for years promised to recapture lands lost in the 1990s and the first returns marked a symbolic moment for Azerbaijan.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called on Armenia to refrain from provocations in the Karabakh region, as he underlined that Azerbaijan and Türkiye are sincere about stability and peace in the region.

“I am calling on Armenia once again to refrain from provocations,” Çavuşoğlu said Monday, as he urged Yerevan to take concrete action and honor the terms of agreements rather than just words.

Çavuşoğlu's statements came as Azerbaijan accused Armenia of failing to abide by the terms of the 2020 agreement by attacking positions near Karabakh, previously referred to as Nagorno-Karabakh.

Attending the 13th Ambassadors Conference in the Turkish capital Ankara, Çavuşoğlu said the normalization of relations with Armenia would benefit Yerevan and the region. He continued by saying that Türkiye and Azerbaijan have been simultaneously trying to normalize ties with Armenia and have been exchanging views during the process and constantly keeping in touch with each other.

The foreign minister also said Türkiye is against the removal of Russia from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), as he highlighted the necessity for dialogue in the region.

The first round of normalization talks was held in Moscow on Jan. 14, where both parties agreed to continue negotiations without any preconditions, according to a statement released after that meeting.

The Turkish and Armenian envoys met for the second time in Vienna on Feb. 24, and the third meeting was held on May 3, also in the Austrian capital.

Also, a historic bilateral meeting took place between the foreign ministers of Türkiye and Armenia on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on March 12.

The two countries have never established formal diplomatic relations and their shared border has been closed since the 1990s.

But in December, the two countries appointed special envoys to help normalize relations, a year after Armenia lost to Türkiye's ally Azerbaijan in a war for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Azerbaijan used the help of Turkish combat drones to recapture most of the contested territory that had been under Armenian forces' control since the 1990s.

Azerbaijan's victory that ended the occupation of its Karabakh region also helped pave the way for the normalization between Türkiye and Armenia.

Relations between the two former Soviet countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

New clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, and the 44-day conflict saw Azerbaijan liberate several cities and over 300 settlements and villages that were occupied by Armenia for almost three decades.

In February, Türkiye and Armenia resumed their first commercial flights in two years.

The land border between the two countries has remained closed since 1993 however, forcing trucks to transit through Georgia or Iran.

Ankara has been mending ties with several regional countries and has emphasized the need for enhanced cooperation, within this scope steps were also taken with Armenia, particularly following the latest Karabakh war between Baku and Yerevan.

Since then, both Russia and Azerbaijan have voiced support for closer ties between Türkiye and Armenia, which is seen within the sphere of regional normalization.