YEREVAN. – Armenia’s deputy Speaker Edward Sharmazanov responds to Turkish deputy PM Bekir Bozdag’s statement that ‘Kharabakh is a Turkish land and the territory is occupied illegally.’

To note, the Turkish deputy PM said in Baku on Wednesday that ‘Karabakh was, is and will be a Turkish land.’ The Turkish official claimed that ‘Karabakh is a Turkish land and the territory is occupied illegally.’ Bozdag also stated that ‘Armenian-Turkish relations will not get normalized and the borders will be closed unless the Armenian troops are taken off Karabakh.’

“I must state for the stubborn Turkish deputy PM that not only Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] is Armenian and has no historic relation to the Turkish tribes, but also the state, Turkey, the citizen of which the official is. I would like to mention that Turkey was established on the historic Armenian and Greek lands by annihilating the Greek and the Armenian native residents. As for Karabakh’s being ‘occupied’ here Azerbaijanis and Turks should deal with the issue,” Sharmazanov said in response to Bozdag’s statement.

According to Sharmazanov, Azerbaijanis must take off their troops from the occupied Shahumyan and Getashen regions, while Turkey from the Northern Cyprus.