ANKARA (Sputnik) — Turkey supports Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday.
"Turkey has stood by Azerbaijan from the very beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. At some point, Karabakh will inevitably return to its rightful owner and become a part of Azerbaijan again," Erdogan said.
On Saturday, Azerbaijan and Armenia reported about heavy fighting in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1988, when the Armenian-dominated autonomous region sought to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, before proclaiming independence after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. In September 2015, the conflict escalated, with the sides blaming each other for violating the truce.