Erdogan, Aliyev Rejoice Over Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh

The presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev, on Thursday rejoiced over Azerbaijan’s attack against and occupation of Artsakh—an act being characterized as ethnic cleansing and genocide by many international human rights experts.

Aliyev was in Turkey to inaugurate a housing complex being built by Azerbaijan in a neighborhood that was impacted by the 2023 earthquake in Turkey.

Both leaders took the opportunity to boast about the aggression in public remarks on the occasion of the groundbreaking ceremony for the housing project.

“Fate has given us the opportunity to witness the liberation of Azerbaijani lands after 30 years of occupation. Today, every corner of Karabakh, liberated under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, forms a unified platform for construction and restoration,” said Erdoğan during the opening ceremony of the “Azerbaijan” neighborhood in the city of Kahramanmaraş.

The Turkish leader recalled that on May 28 he was in occupied Lachin, where an international airport was inaugurated. “Together with my brother Ilham Aliyev, we took part in opening this new air gateway,” he added.

Erdoğan expressed hope that the establishment of peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia will provide fresh momentum to the development and restoration efforts in the region.

“We stood shoulder to shoulder with my dear brother, esteemed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the Karabakh issue from the first day of the war. The support, solidarity, political and moral backing shown to us by the President of Turkey from the first hours of the war and the fact that the Turkish people were together with us gave us additional strength. We have restored historical justice, and today the Azerbaijani people live in comfort and security on their ancestral land,” declared Aliyev.

“The Shusha Declaration, which we signed together with the esteemed President in Shusha four years ago has raised our relations to the highest level. The Shusha Declaration has officially elevated our relations to the level of an alliance. We are friends, brothers and allies. Turkey and Azerbaijan, two brotherly countries, are confidently and successfully moving forward hand in hand in political, economic, energy, transport, military and all other fields,” Aliyev added. He was referencing an agreement signed by the two leaders in occupied Shushi, cementing Turkey and Azerbaijan alliance against Armenians.

Erdoğan is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Friday. The Armenian leader will travel to Turkey on Erdoğan invitation, for what is being touted by Armenian government circles as a “milestone” meeting between the two leaders.

Pashinyan told reporters on Wednesday that a joint statement will be issued following the meeting, whose details are being kept confidential by both sides.

Armen Yeghoyan, a member of Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party in parliament, Pashinyan and Aliyev are not scheduled to meet in Turkey on Friday.

“The visit is very important. It is the first bilateral visit since [Armenia’s] independence [in 1991]. Especially in this fraught region, I believe one needs to talk with Turkey, understand each other,” Yeghoyan told reporters. “At the moment, the agenda is the normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations. It is the agenda around which our [special] envoys have been negotiating for several years,” he added.

The Pashinyan ally said that if Turkey is so inclined, it “can bring Azerbaijan to a constructive arena, but whether or not it will have such political will is another matter.”