Azerbaijan leader vows to guarantee rights of Karabakh Armenians as Erdogan visits

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev promised Monday that the rights of ethnic Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region would be protected after Baku’s victory over the rebel enclave.

“Despite what happened five days ago, we began sending humanitarian aid to Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region. Fuel, foodstuffs, medicines were sent,” Aliyev said during a meeting with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“This shows once again that Karabakh’s residents - regardless their ethnicity - are citizens of Azerbaijan. Their rights will be guaranteed by the Azerbaijani state.”

Azerbaijan’s leader said he was “confident that the process of reintegration of Karabakh’s Armenians into Azerbaijani society will be successful.”

Aliyev and key ally Erdogan hailed the defeat of separatist forces at a summit in Azerbaijan’s exclave Nakhichevan.

Erdogan said Azerbaijan’s victory in last week’s offensive in the Karabakh region opened a window of opportunity for normalization in the region.

Speaking alongside Aliyev after a foundation-laying ceremony for a gas pipeline from Nackchivan to Turkey’s Igdir province, Erdogan said he hoped Armenia would take “sincere steps” to grab this opportunity for stability and peace in the region.

He added Azerbaijan’s success in the Karabakh operation was a source of pride for Turkey, and congratulated the Azeri army for showing “sensitivity” to civilians in the region.

The meeting came as thousands of ethnic Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh streamed out of the region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars marked by forced displacement on both sides in the last three decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority ethnic Armenian enclave within the internationally recognized border of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan launched a lightning operation on September 19 to seize control of the territory, forcing the separatists to lay down their arms under the terms of a ceasefire agreed the following day.