Azerbaijan refutes Turkish base fake

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry expressed its attitude towards the biased article published in the electronic version of the Russian 'Nezavisimaya Gazeta' newspaper on September 1, 2020.

"The Russian newspaper published an article entitled 'Syrian fighters in Azerbaijan are preparing for a blitzkrieg in Armenia' and presented information that was completely untrue. The author of the article, Vladimir Mukhin misled the readers without referring to any reliable source and without citing convincing facts. We categorically reject the false fabrications indicated in the article that allegedly "there is already a de-facto Turkish military base in Nakhchivan, reinforced by combat aircraft," and about "the transfer of about 500 Syrian militants to Azerbaijan, mainly Turkomans," the ministry said.

"All the arguments in the mentioned article, especially those concerning the alleged transfer of militants from Syria to Azerbaijan, are clear disinformation and in no way reflect reality," the defense ministry stressed.

"Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defense officially declares that there are no military bases of foreign states or any other illegal armed group on the territory of the country. The professionalism and combat experience of the personnel of the Azerbaijani army, as well as the military equipment and combat resources in service, are sufficient to quickly complete any combat mission to liberate the lands occupied by Armenia and restore the country's territorial integrity. 

"The Azerbaijani Army demonstrated this during the April 2016 battles, as well as during the combat operations conducted in 2018 in Nakhchivan and in 2020 in fighting off the Armenian attacks in the direction of Tovuz district," the ministry said.

The defense ministry also added that Yerevan, interested in spreading such misinformation, deliberately creates fertile ground for aggravating the situation in the region, escalating the conflict and openly involving a larger number of parties in it.