Baku accuses Moscow of supplying weapons disguised as building materials to Armenia and Syria

Azerbaijani Presidential Aide Hikmet Hajiyev claims Russia is supplying weapons to Armenia, some of which are then transported to Syria.

This is how Baku officially announced its lack of confidence in the earlier statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry that the Il-76 planes flying into Armenia are delivering construction materials.

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Hikmet Hajiyev made a comment to reporters on the supply of weapons immediately after a briefing on the spread of coronavirus in Azerbaijan.

Baku is particularly indignant about the fact that, according to the Azerbaijani side, Russia supplied weapons to Armenia during and after the sharp escalation of hostilities on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border on July 12-16, 2020. Then military equipment, mortars were used, at least 17 people were killed on both sides.

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This topic was already the main headline on August 13, when the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia had a conversation over the phone.

Official Azerbaijani sources reported at the time that Ilham Aliyev called President Vladimir Putin to relay his “serious concerns” regarding the “large volume of supplies from Russia to Официальные азербайджанские источники тогда сообщили, что Ильхам Алиев позвонил президенту России Владимиру Путину, чтобы высказать «серьезную озабоченность» по поводу «the large volume of military cargo being supplied from Russia to Armenia after the end of clash on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border – from July 17 to the present”.

Hajiyev says that Azerbaijan has been observing a large amount of strategic Il-76 airliners flying out of Russia towards Armenia for a while.

Russia informed Azerbaijan that these Il-76 planes were carrying construction materials. But Baku is not satisfied with this answer, Hajiyev said.

“Construction materials are usually not delivered on airplanes, there are other ways to do this”, the presidential aide said.

“Based on observations, we also have information that weapons are delivered to Syrian territory through Armenia”, he added.

Earlier, the Kremlin announced that it was transporting weapons to its military base in Armenia and cited its strategic partnership with Armenia.