Erdogan: Karabakh bloodshed is a result of silence on Armenia's occupation
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan marked the anniversary of liberation of key city in Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters during a ceremony in Istanbul, Turkey, November 5, 2021.
Those who remained silent on the three-decade occupation of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region are responsible for the tragedies and the bloodshed that took place there said Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Speaking at the Presidential Complex in the capital Ankara after a Cabinet meeting on Monday, Erdogan marked the first Victory Day since the liberation of Karabakh from Armenian occupation.
READ MORE: Turkey joins Azerbaijan's celebrations of Karabakh victory anniversary
Shusha, Azerbaijan's cultural and historical capital, was liberated last fall after 28 years of Armenian occupation.
During the 44-day conflict, which ended with a Russian-brokered truce in November 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several strategic cities and nearly 300 of its settlements and villages from Armenian occupation.
Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan – two former Soviet republics – have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
A joint Turkish-Russian center was established to monitor the postwar truce.
READ MORE: Azerbaijan accuses Armenia at top UN court of 'ethnic cleansing'
READ MORE: Erdogan visits Azerbaijan for third time since Karabakh liberation
Turkey 'successfully' coping with the pandemic
Erdogan also said Turkey has been successfully coping with the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been continuing to threaten humanity with new waves and variants in its second full year.
Noting that a long-running fight is necessary to beat the pandemic, he said it challenges the healthcare services of all countries, including developed ones.
Erdogan stressed that Turkey is in a position to control the numbers of hospitalisation, cases in intensive care units, and fatalities.
With normalisation steps, Turkey has left behind the problems the pandemic measures caused in the fields of tourism and trade, he added.
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