Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov congratulated Vladimir Putin on his birthday and stated that the Russian president's name holds "special significance" for the Chechen people. According to Kadyrov, the region will "never forget" the support Putin extended to his father—Chechnya’s first president, Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov—"at a time when the future of the Chechen Republic depended on the decisions being made."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that during the 44-day war in Karabakh, an information campaign was launched against Azerbaijan with the aim of accusing Ankara of supporting Baku. He emphasized that these accusations relied on the rhetoric of Ankara's opponents and spread false information about Turkish arms supplies to Azerbaijan.
Erdoğan compared this situation to the tragedy on the Boraltan Bridge, when Turkey extradited a group of Azerbaijanis to the Soviet authorities, knowing their fate. He called for solidarity and consolidation among Turkic peoples to overcome historical challenges.
In 1944, 146 Azerbaijanis, fleeing Soviet rule, fled to Turkey and took refuge in a military unit in Iğdır Province, crossing the Boraltan Bridge on the Araz River. The Soviet government demanded their immediate extradition. On orders from Ankara, the commander of the Turkish military unit handed the refugees over to Soviet border guards. Immediately after crossing the border, the Azerbaijanis were shot.