Turkey slams Armenian attack on Azerbaijan

By Fahri Aksut

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's Foreign Ministry on Thursday slammed Armenia's attacks on Azerbaijan and the smear campaign against Turkey.

"This hypocritical attitude of Armenia, which has maintained an illegitimate occupation in the territory of Azerbaijan for many years, clearly and obviously reveals who is the main obstacle to the establishment of permanent peace and stability in the South Caucasus," it said in a statement.

Recent border clashes with Armenia have resulted in the martyrdom of 11 Azerbaijani soldiers and injured four.

In retaliatory attacks, Azerbaijani officials said nearly 100 Armenian troops were killed.

Turkey said it stands with Baku in these difficult times.

The Foreign Ministry said Armenia's foreign policy based on slander will not be beneficial to anyone.

“This approach is a manifestation of a mentality that creates its identity only from a unilateral understanding of history and tries to justify its unlawful aggression,” it said.

It said this faulty attitude of Armenia that triggers aggressive nationalism is sad, but not surprising.

The ministry added that the Armenian authorities should act wisely and learn as soon as possible to be part of solutions instead of problems in the South Caucasus.