President Erdoğan visits symbolic Karabakh city

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on June 15 visited the symbolic town of Shusha recaptured by ally Azerbaijan during last year's war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Turkey was a key backer of Azerbaijan during the conflict, which erupted in September and ended in a Russian-brokered ceasefire after six weeks of fighting and some 6,000 deaths.

The truce agreement saw Yerevan cede territories it had controlled for decades, including Shusha.

The fortress town sits on cliffs around 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Karabakh's largest city Stepanakert and its capture by the Azerbaijani forces in November marked the turning point of the war.

Erdoğan arrived in Baku in the early hours on June 15 and he met later in the afternoon with President Ilham Aliyev in Shusha.

The two leaders later traveled to the Azerbaijani city of Shusha in the same car. Aliyev briefed Erdoğan about reconstruction in the city on the way. Erdoğan was later welcomed with an official ceremony in Shusha by Aliyev.

susha, Diplomacy,