The four Turkish intellectuals, who visited Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in September, have issued a joint statement in connection with the recent remarks by the foreign minister of Turkey.

Former MP Ufuk Uras, writer Sait Çetinoğlu, journalist Ali Bayramoğlu, and academician Erol Katırcıoğlu have stated that what FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said about them several days ago is untrue, according to Demokrathaber website of Turkey.

“There are no ‘apology,’ ‘regret,’ or thoughts that express such a meaning in our letter addressed to Azerbaijan,” the said statement reads, in particular. “Furthermore, no investigation into us has begun in Turkey.

“We told Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu that we are intellectuals, journalists, and are visiting the conflict zones, and that our visit has nothing to do with legal statuses. We are against Çavuşoğlu presenting what we said in a distorted way.”

After these Turkish intellectuals’ visit to Artsakh, Azerbaijan issued an international search for, and filed a criminal case against, them, and demanded from Turkey to hand them over to it.

Turkish FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu recently claimed that these intellectuals had apologized to Azerbaijan for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh.