Liberation of Karabakh region from Armenian occupation key development in Azerbaijan’s history: Turkish vice president

One of the most significant historical developments in recent years in Azerbaijan is the liberation of Karabakh from occupation, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said Tuesday.

"Now is the time to rebuild and revitalize these lands liberated from occupation," Yılmaz said at the "Meeting of the Business World" event in Azerbaijan.

"We will continue our cooperation with Azerbaijan at the highest level to ensure that Karabakh becomes a much stronger and more developed region," he said. "Our collaboration will persist in infrastructure and superstructure investments in this region, ranging from tourism to agriculture, mining, and other fields, and hopefully, Karabakh will move towards the future much stronger and more developed."

As long as there are no external interventions for various purposes from outside the region and countries in this region enhance collaborations, peace and tranquility will prevail in the region, said Yılmaz, adding the situation will be beneficial for everyone in the region.

Trade between the two countries reached $6.5 billion in 2022, while in the first 11 months of 2023, it rose to $6.7 billion, according to Yılmaz.

Underlining that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev have set a target of $15 billion in trade, Yılmaz said: "Every passing year, we are getting closer to this target."

Azerbaijan liberated most of the Karabakh region from Armenian occupation during 44 days of fighting in the fall of 2020, which ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement, opening the door to normalization.

The Azerbaijani army initiated an anti-terrorism operation in Karabakh in September to establish constitutional order, after which illegal separatist forces in the region surrendered.