MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. Turkey’s siding with Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can be seen as a geopolitical consequence of the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

"As for Turkey, Turkey’s role, it is well known, it has been repeatedly said in Azerbaijan and the Turkish side has never made any secret of that: they have been unilaterally supporting Azerbaijan," Putin said in an interview with the Russian media aired by the Rossiya-1 and Rossiya-24 television channels. "Well, what can I say? It is a geopolitical consequence of the collapse of the former Soviet Union."

The Russian leader stressed that Azerbaijan is an independent sovereign state which has the right to choose its allies as it likes.