A military cargo plane en route from Azerbaijan to Turkey has crashed near the Georgia-Azerbaijan border, the Defense Ministry has announced.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, "May God have mercy on our martyrs," speaking during an event in Ankara. Later the ministry confirmed that 20 soldiers were killed in the incident.
The aircraft, a C-130 model, went down shortly after takeoff. "A C-130 military cargo plane that took off from Azerbaijan en route to our country has crashed near the Georgia-Azerbaijan border," the ministry said in a statement shared on social media. "Search and rescue operations have begun in coordination with Azerbaijani and Georgian authorities."
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya spoke by phone with Georgian Interior Minister Geka Geladze regarding the incident, officials said.
