Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said the active phase of large-scale military drills started in the autonomous region of Naxcivan yesterday has ended.

The drills involved nearly 20,000 troops, more than 400 armored vehicles, aircraft, air-defense systems, artillery and missiles, as well as special-purpose army units, the ministry said today on its website.

The maneuvers were led by Defense Minister Col-Lt Zakir Hasanov, who “highly rated” the combat readiness of troops that participated in the drills, the ministry said.

Naxcivan is a landlocked region cut off from the rest of Azerbaijan by Armenia, which is in a state of war with Azerbaijan.

Armenia captured nearly one-fifth of Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts, in a war in the early 1990s.

Major hostilities ended with a ceasefire in 1994 but no peace agreement has been signed.

Talks mediated by Russia, the US and France for more than 20 years have produced no results.

Bakudaily.az