"We have no mercenaries. This is our official statement. More than two weeks have passed since the beginning of the clashes, and no country has yet presented any evidence to us in regard to that. Moreover, we do not need it. We have the army consisting of over 100, 000 servicemen. What we are doing today on the battlefield shows that our army is capable of liberating its lands," said President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in an interview to "France-24" TV channel.
The head of state also expressed his opinion on the allegations of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drean regarding the military participation of Turkey in the conflict: "He makes a mistake on this issue. Turkey's military participation is another piece of fake news. There is no Turkish military participation. We use military equipment of Turkish production, that is true. However, we use military equipment of Russian, Israeli production and from other countries as well. Unlike Armenia, which gets them free of charge, we pay for that military equipment. Excluding the political sphere, Turkey does not participate in the process. There are no Turkish troops here. Turkey's F-16 missiles are here, but they have stayed here after a military exercise.
Recalling the joint Azerbaijani-Turkish military exercises, President Ilham Aliyev underlined that this clash took place following another military exercise: "Thus, we have decided to keep F-16 missiles on the ground, and they are on the ground, they are not in the air."