Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev promised Monday that the rights of ethnic Armenians in the Karabakh region would be protected after Baku's victory over the rebel enclave.
"Despite what happened five days ago, we began sending humanitarian aid to Azerbaijan's Karabakh region. Fuel, foodstuffs, medicines were sent," Aliyev said during a meeting with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
"This shows once again that Karabakh's residents - regardless their ethnicity - are citizens of Azerbaijan. Their rights will be guaranteed by the Azerbaijani state."
Azerbaijan's leader said he was "confident that the process of reintegration of Karabakh's Armenians into Azerbaijani society will be successful".
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars marked by forced displacement on both sides in the last three decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been the internationally recognised land of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan launched a lightning operation on September 19 to seize control of the territory, forcing the separatists to lay down their arms under the terms of a ceasefire agreed the following day.
