A view by a automotive window reveals Azerbaijani service members driving behind a truck in Stepanakert metropolis, referred to as Khankendi by Azerbaijan, following an Azeri navy operation and an extra mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from the area of Nagorno-Karabakh, October 2, 2023. REUTERS
The primary mixed navy drills between Azerbaijan and its shut ally Turkey had been introduced on Monday. Baku’s takeover of the breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh final month pressured nearly all of the province’s ethnic Armenian inhabitants to evacuate.
In an announcement, the protection ministry of Azerbaijan said that workout routines bearing the identify of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the daddy of recent Turkey, had been being attended by as much as 3,000 navy troops.
It stated the drills had been being held throughout Azerbaijan, together with in Baku, the Nakhichevan exclave which borders Turkey, and in what the ministry known as the “liberated territories” of Karabakh.
Turkey has shut linguistic and cultural hyperlinks to Azerbaijan, and provided Baku navy and political assist throughout its three decade-long battle with Armenia, with which Ankara has no formal diplomatic relations.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have just lately signalled willingness to signal a peace treaty formally ending their battle following Azerbaijan’s victory in Karabakh and the exodus of virtually all of the area’s 120,000 ethnic Armenians.
The overseas ministers of the 2 nations, together with these of Turkey, Iran and Russia, had been as a result of maintain talks hosted by Tehran on Monday on progress in direction of a peace settlement.
Nevertheless, Baku this month accused Yerevan of undermining the peace course of with “aggressive rhetoric”.
Armenia describes the Karabakh Armenians’ flight as ethnic cleaning pushed by the specter of violence after a nine-month blockade of important provides, the most recent chapter in a battle between Christian Armenians and Turkic Muslim Azeris that goes again greater than a century.
Azerbaijan says the Karabakh Armenian civilians had been welcome to remain and be built-in in Azerbaijani society, however left voluntarily.