"We have anti-aircraft guns for S-300 which we bought from Russia. We have purchased a large amount of weapons from Russia," President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has said in an interview to CNN-Türk television on October 7, APA reports.
The head of state said there are no restrictions in that area: "Therefore, I cannot speak of double standards. The only difference is that we buy them and they are very expensive systems. Armenia often receives them free of charge – either as a gift or as a loan. But this loan remains on paper and is never repaid. Naturally, if this expensive armament had not been provided to Armenia free of charge, then Armenia’s possession of it could not even be a subject of discussion and the conflict would have been settled long ago. The free armament has instilled confidence in them that they would be able to hold these lands under occupation forever. The difference is this. We have the opportunity to acquire weapons from Russia. We buy weapons from other countries as well. There are no restrictions on this issue. There are some countries that have imposed an embargo on the sale of weapons to us but this does not create any particular problems for us because the arms market is now more diversified and its geography is expanding. I recently said that the Turkish defense industry is developing so rapidly today that, I hope our equipment with Turkish weapons will rise to an even higher level in the future."