The Turkish Ministry of Defense announced Wednesday that 20 soldiers were killed when a military cargo plane crashed near the Azerbaijani-Georgian border on Tuesday.
According to a statement issued by the ministry and reported by Anadolu Agency, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler expressed his condolences to the families of the fallen soldiers and to the entire Turkish nation.
The ministry said the aircraft, a C-130 military transport plane, was carrying 20 military personnel, including the flight crew, when it crashed while returning from Azerbaijan to Turkey, approximately five kilometers from the Georgian-Azerbaijani border.
The Ministry of Defense noted that the cause of the crash will be determined after a thorough technical examination of the wreckage by a Turkish team of experts dispatched to the site.