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Head of Turkish MFA: "Azerbaijan has ability to liberate its occupied lands by itself"

30 September 2020 12:24 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan is waging a struggle against occupiers in its lands and is capable of defending its rights in the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday, as he reiterated Turkey's support for Baku, APA reports citing Anadolu Agency.

"Turkey will support Azerbaijan in every way possible. But so far, their own forces have been more than enough in their fight against illegal Armenian occupation," Cavusoglu told Anadolu Agency's Editor's Desk.

Cavusoglu continued by saying that countries demanding a cease-fire cannot treat Azerbaijan and Armenia similarly: "They should call on Armenia to retreat from the occupied territories that belong to Azerbaijan," he said.

"Where on earth do occupiers and the ones whose land is being occupied are treated equally?" Cavusoglu said, noting that Armenia has had the courage to attack Azerbaijan because other countries have been supporting it.

The Foreign Minister highlighted the deadlock over the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, saying that no concrete steps have been taken in the past three decades to put an end to the conflict.

He noted that treating Azerbaijan like it is attacking Armenia is unreasonable because it is fighting against occupiers in its own lands.

Regarding Turkey-EU relations, Cavusoglu said a majority of EU member states understand Turkey’s demands in the Eastern Mediterranean, and many of them acknowledge Turkey's stance and reject the so-called “Seville Map,” in reference to Greece’s maximalist aspirations in the region.

“As decisions in the European Parliament are made on the basis of consensus, Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration took the EU hostage with their veto threats, just like they vetoed sanctions against Belarus,” Cavusoglu said.

He criticized Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ administration of refraining from dialogue with Turkey, in a similar manner with his predecessor Alexis Tsipras:

“Like the previous Tsipras government, the Mitsotakis administration also refrains from dialogue with Turkey, even though Foreign Minister Dendias is a close friend of mine. They bow to the pressure from media, public opinion,” he said.