BEIRUT, LEBANON (9:30 A.M.) – The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, declared that “military equipment of the Armenian armed forces worth $1 billion was destroyed by the use of drones purchased from Turkey.”
Aliyev said in an interview with France 24 that these drones caused significant damage to the Armenian military’s equipment, but he also pointed out that his country uses unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) from other sources as well.
The Azerbaijani President refused to announce the number of drones in the possession of his country’s army, saying only that they are “sufficient to achieve the goal.”
He further touched on the rumors of foreign fighters in Azerbaijan, saying that “no country has provided evidence to prove allegations that Baku has used mercenaries from the Middle East in the battles in Karabakh.”
Aliyev said: “We do not have mercenaries. This is our official position. It has been more than two weeks since the start of the clash, and no country has provided us with any evidence of this.”
He added, “We do not need this. We have an army of more than 100,000 soldiers, and everything we do today on the battlefield shows that our army is capable of liberating its lands.”
Since the outbreak of the fighting in Karabakh, on the 27th of last month, the Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad, and sources in the Syrian opposition also spoke about Ankara sending mercenaries from Syria to fight in Karabakh on the side of Azerbaijan.
While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied these accusations, he said, “This is not our concern … the Syrian fighters do not go to Azerbaijan because they have something to do in their country,” stressing that his country is ready to provide all kinds of support to Azerbaijan.
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