Turkey will not allow Azerbaijan’s rights to be violated for the sake of Armenia’s interests, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a spring session of PACE.
“Turkey will open borders with Armenia as soon problems are solved,” the Prime Minister added.
Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, provoked by Armenian separatists, began with unfounded claims of the separatists to join the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKR) of the Azerbaijan SSR to the Armenian SSR in February 1988.
All this happened on the backdrop of forced deportation of 200,000 Azerbaijani population of Armenia (1987-1989).
Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan was followed by a war which became the bloodiest ethnic conflict in the former Soviet Union.
The hot phase of the conflict that lasted from 1992 to 1994 began after the Soviet collapse and killed about 40,000 people with over one million Azerbaijanis becoming refugees and internally displaced persons.
Twenty percent of Azerbaijan’s land – Nagorno Karabakh and 7 surrounding regions – were occupied as a result.
Armenia has not yet fulfilled the four UN Security Council resolutions on de-occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas
The sides reached a ceasefire agreement in May 1994.
Currently, the sides are holding negotiations mediated by OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by France, U.S. and Russia.
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