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Turkey’s defense industry stands ready to help Azerbaijan, says director: report

Armenian soldiers on the border. / AP

Turkey’s defense industry chief said on Friday that his sector was ready to help Azerbaijan, which has seen border clashes with Armenia in which 16 people have been killed, according to Reuters.

Turkey has strong historical and cultural ties with Azerbaijan as well as joint energy projects.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday said it would not hesitate to “stand against any attack” on Azerbaijan and that Armenia was “out of its depth” in the conflict.

On Friday Defense Industry Director İsmail Demir tweeted that “our defense industry, with all its experience, technology and capabilities, from our armed drones to our ammunition and missiles and our electronic warfare systems, is always at the disposal of Azerbaijan!”

Fifteen soldiers from both sides and one civilian have died since Sunday in the clashes between the neighboring former Soviet republics, which fought a war in the 1990s over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region.

International concern is high because of the threat to stability in a region that hosts pipelines taking oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to global markets.

Demir, who met with Azerbaijan’s deputy defense minister and air force commander Ramiz Tahirov in Ankara, said Turkey would help to modernize Azerbaijan’s army.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Armenia had started the border clashes and that it would be “drowned under the plot that they initiated.”

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