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Tragedy committed against Azerbaijanis 77 years ago will never happen again, Erdogan says

09 May 2022 22:19 (UTC +04:00)

“We will not experience the shame of the Boraltan Bridge tragedy again,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan,Turkish President, APA's Istanbul correspondent reports.

The Turkish leader said that his country will not close its doors to those who need it.

According to him, the number of people fleeing Ukraine to Turkey since the beginning of the war has reached 100,000.

President Erdogan said that so far 20,000 Syrians living and working illegally in Turkey and more than 21,000 citizens of other countries have been expelled from the country.

Note that in 1944, 146 Azerbaijanis who fled the pressure of the Stalin regime in the USSR decided to take refuge in Turkey. To do this, they crossed the Boraltan bridge over the Araz River near the border gate of the Turkish province of Igdir and in the feeling of happiness to be free took refuge in a military unit there.

After hearing that 146 Azerbaijanis had taken refuge in Turkey, the Soviet government demanded their immediate extradition to the USSR. Azerbaijanis who took refuge in Turkey did not even think about the possibility of their return to the Russians.

Following an order from Ankara, the commander of the military unit was forced to hand over 146 Azerbaijanis to the USSR.

Azerbaijanis, who were forced to surrender to the Russians, were shot as soon as they crossed the border in front of Turkish soldiers.