Ankara: Biden should urge end to Armenian occupation

Turkey's presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on Wednesday scolded US presidential candidate Joe Biden for failing to urge Armenia to end its occupation of Azerbaijani land.

"Would you ask Armenia to end the occupation too?" Ibrahim Kalin wrote on Twitter, adding: "Or would you simply cave in to the smear campaigns of the Armenian lobby?"

Following weekend Armenian attacks based in Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh – an internationally recognized Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenia – Biden wrote on Twitter Tuesday: "With casualties rapidly mounting in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, the Trump Administration needs to call the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan immediately to de-escalate the situation."

He added: "It must also demand others – like Turkey – stay out of this conflict."

The Armenian armed forces committed a large-scale provocation, subjecting the positions of the Azerbaijani army to intensive shelling from large-caliber weapons, mortars, and artillery installations of various calibers in the front-line zone on Sept. 27 at 05:00 (Msk). The command of the Azerbaijani Army decided to launch a counter-offensive operation of Azerbaijani troops along the entire front to suppress the combat activity of the Armenian armed forces and ensure the safety of the civilian population. Seven villages of Fizuli and Jabrayil districts, key heights near Talysh, as well as Murovdag were liberated.