Azerbaijan's Aliyev receives executives from Turkish defense firm Baykar

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday received the chief executive officer and technology officer of leading Turkish defense company Baykar.

Haluk Bayraktar and Selçuk Bayraktar arrived in the capital Baku to promote Teknofest Azerbaijan, Turkey's major technology and aviation fair, which is scheduled to be held from May 26-29.

Selçuk Bayraktar on Twitter thanked Aliyev for meeting with them and also shared photos taken from their visit.

As part of their visit, Haluk and Selçuk also visited a park where military vehicles seized by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces from the Armenian Army during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war are exhibited.

LIBERATION OF KARABAKH

Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

New clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020 with the Armenian army attacking civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violating several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.

During the 44-day conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and 300 settlements and villages that were occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

Prior to that, about 20% of Azerbaijan's territory was under illegal occupation.

The fighting ended with a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020 which was seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia.

Two months later, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a pact to develop economic ties and infrastructure to benefit the entire region. It also included the establishment of a trilateral working group on Karabakh.