H.E. Mr. Mehmet Hakan Olcay:

As the committee knows, the Karabakh conflict has been going on for 30 years, ever since the independence of Azerbaijan. One fifth of its territory was occupied by Armenian forces. Then the Minsk Group was established to try to find a diplomatic solution to the problem. However, it did not work for the last 30 years. In June 2020, new attacks started and they started to escalate going into September. Finally, a year ago today, the Azeri forces started their 44-day operation in Nagorno-Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh is Azeri territory. The committee must also take that into account. I am sure the ambassador of Azerbaijan would have been in a much better position to answer this question but Turkey wants normalisation across the region. The new landscape in Karabakh offers a realistic opportunity to establish enduring peace and stability and this opportunity should not be missed.

President Erdoan announced recently that we can gradually also normalise our relations with Armenia if it takes concrete and sincere steps. We will reciprocate to any positive steps coming from Armenia. We also expect Armenia to be part of the regional co-operation projects. We are of the opinion that the recent Azeri proposal to negotiate a peace agreement with Armenia will contribute to lasting peace across the region, so there will be a win-win situation with a normalisation in that region.

Coming to the drones, we see Azerbaijan as one nation, two states - Turkey and Azerbaijan. For the last 30 years since its independence, we have developed many co-operation projects, including co-operation in military training and technical aid. As a free country to purchase its weaponry, it may have bought drones from Turkey as well.

It may have also been involved in training in Turkey for its operations. That is all the information I have on the use of drones.

The Istanbul Convention has been the subject of debate in Turkey since its entry into force not only in Turkey but also in a lot of other Council of Europe countries. Six EU members and the UK have not ratified it yet. In different segments of our society some elements of the convention became the subject of criticism. As a result of the evaluation made, the decision to withdraw from the agreement was taken. Our decision is not a step back from our determination to fight violence against women, and in all our laws we have the strictest applicability to punish any crime against women. We will continue to show no tolerance to violence against women. Also, we announced the fourth national action plan on combating violence against women on 1 July of this year.