BAKU, January 17. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev held talks by phone with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Azerbaijani president’s press office said on Saturday.
"The heads of state spoke about the launch of the Turkish-Russian Joint Monitoring Center in Aghdam soon, noting that the operation of the Center will contribute to ensuring long-lasting peace," the statement says.
Aliyev informed Erdogan about the reconstruction work underway in the areas retaken by Baku and "hailed the Turkish companies' active involvement in this work."
"The Turkish President emphasized that his country would continue to support Azerbaijan. The head of state thanked the Turkish President for this," the statement reads.
On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey and Russia would field 60 service members each to work at the monitoring center.
On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. Under the statement, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides are to maintain the positions that they have held and then, Armenian forces are to turn over control of certain districts to Azerbaijan. In addition, Russian peacekeepers are to be deployed along the contact line and to the Lachin corridor, which links Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. The memorandum on establishment of the Russian-Turkish monitoring center to control the ceasefire was signed on November 11 after the talks involving Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.