Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay a one-day working visit to Azerbaijan on Tuesday, where, jointly with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, he will take part in the ceremony to open Fizuli International Airport.
“Our president will pay a one-day working visit to Azerbaijan on October 26 on the invitation of Ilham Aliyev. They will take part in the ceremony to open the international airport in the city of Fizuli, liberated from occupation… last fall,” the Turkish presidential administration said in a statement.
The city of Fizuli in Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of Azerbaijan during the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh on October 17, 2020. The groundbreaking ceremony for the airport took place on January 14, and the first flights at the airport began on September 5.
At the end of September 2020, hostilities resumed in Nagorno-Karabakh, which became a continuation of the long-term conflict and led to casualties among the civilian population. The sides made several attempts to sign a truce, but only the tripartite agreement reached overnight to November 10, 2020 turned out to be successful.
With the mediation of Moscow, Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to completely cease fire and exchange prisoners and bodies of the dead. Yerevan also transferred the Kalbajar, Lachin and Agdam districts to Baku. Russian peacekeepers were stationed in the region.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh began in February 1988, when the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its secession from the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic. During armed confrontation in 1992-1994, Azerbaijan lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh and its adjacent areas. Since 1992, talks were ongoing on peaceful settlement of the conflict with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group, led by Russia, the United States and France.