Belarus president visits liberated Azerbaijani cities of Fuzuli, Shusha

By Ruslan Rehimov

BAKU (AA) - Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko on Friday visited the Azerbaijani cities of Fuzuli and Shusha, which were liberated from Armenian occupation during the Second Karabakh War in 2020.

Earlier, Lukashenko arrived in the capital Baku and met with Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev before heading to Fuzuli.

Lukashenko and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, who inspected the destruction carried out during the Armenian occupation of the city of Fuzuli, were briefed about the reconstruction and revival works carried out there.

The two leaders then visited Shusha where they toured historical monuments and reviewed the sites of reconstruction and restoration.

Relations between Baku and Yerevan have remained tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that opened the door to normalization and the demarcation of their border.

Last September, Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh following an "anti-terrorist operation" after which separatist forces in the region surrendered.

*Writing by Gizem Nisa Cebi in Istanbul