Following the Turkey-Azerbaijan Supreme Strategic Cooperation Council session, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is in Baku, held a joint news conference with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev.

The news reporters posed the two leaders questions on the latest regional developments, Turkey-Azerbaijan relations, and opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, Haberler news agency of Turkey reports.  

In response to a journalist’s query in connection with opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, the Turkish PM stated that the border will not be opened until the OSCE Minsk Group troika finds ways to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, or the matter of one or two regions there is resolved. 

Erdogan insisted that the Armenians must withdraw from the liberated lands, and noted that, although the international organizations stress that those lands belong to Azerbaijan, they have not yet been surrendered to their owner.

“Our position here is clear. Our steps taken so far with Armenia will also continue in the same way thereafter. And, in this process, we will always continue to be alongside Azerbaijan,” the Turkish PM stated.