Turkey to treat Azeri soldiers injured in Karabakh fighting

Turkey will treat three Azerbaijani soldiers who were wounded in recent clashes with Armenia, Today's Zaman reported.

The three Azerbaijani soldiers have been taken to Ankara by an ambulance aircraft. The soldiers were welcomed by Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) head Serdar Çam, Health Ministry officials and Deputy Prime Minister Emrullah İşler at Ankara's Esenboğa airport.

İşler said that the wounded soldiers had come to Turkey to be treated. “They will return to their home country after treatment,” he said.

Fighting broke out between Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces two weeks ago over Azerbaijan's rebel region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been under Armenian occupation since the 1994 ceasefire. 

During clashes on Saturday night, one Azerbaijani soldier was killed after Armenian troops opened fire and another soldier was wounded, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said.

In remarks to reporters in Ankara, İşler said the clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been ongoing since July 31 and that the Karabakh problem needs to be solved as soon as possible. He said that Turkey is doing its utmost to solve the problem and called on the international community to take steps to settle the dispute between two countries. Deputy Prime Minister İşler also expressed his support for Azerbaijan.

After the clashes broke out, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and extended his condolences to the people of Azerbaijan. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also stated via his Twitter account that he had called his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, after the incidents in Nagorno-Karabakh and conveyed Turkey's condolences for the dead.

The issue of Armenia's withdrawal from the area surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh is of great importance to Ankara, which has frequently signaled that this step would ease the way toward the reopening of its border with Armenia.

Bakudaily.Az