Armenia’s Ministry: Turkey arming Azerbaijan reveals expansionist ambitions in the Caucasus region
Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared on Sunday that the actions of Turkey about arming Azerbaijan and providing foreign fighters reveals Ankara’s expansionist ambitions in the Caucasus region.
The ministry reported in a statement: It’s obvious that Turkey, with participation of which the military aggression of Azerbaijan against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was preplanned and still continues, does not give up its stance of further destabilizing the situation and undermining the agreements reached.
It also added: Along with supplying Azerbaijan with foreign terrorist fighters from the Middle East, military equipment and experts, Turkey has also been sponsoring Azerbaijan’s information and political campaign aimed at undermining the provisions of the agreement on the cessation of hostilities reached at the level of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on October 10, 2020, at the initiative of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Moreover, the ministry of Armenia indicated that Ankara’s support to Azerbaijan showed Turkey’s aspirations to turn our region along with other neighboring regions to a platform for its expansionist ambitions.
Indeed, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had reported on September 28 that Ankara had sent at least 300 proxies from northern Syria. Whereas, French President Emmanuel Macron had also declared that intelligence reports affirmed that 300 Syrian fighters from the Syrian city of Aleppo had moved via the Turkish city of Gaziantep to Azerbaijan. He claimed that these fighters are known; tracked and identified, adding that he would appeal Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the coming days.
On its part, Turkey affirmed that it will do what is necessary to back Azerbaijan; however it has dismissed sending mercenaries. Nevertheless, the ambassador of Armenia to Moscow declared on September 28 that Turkey had dispatched almost 4,000 fighters from northern Syria to Azerbaijan and that they were in fight there, which was denied by an assistant to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
It should be noted that neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan have been entered in an armed conflict since September 27 about the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which led to the death of hundreds of people.
This disputed land of Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, hosted about 150,000 people, which separated from Baku’s control in a war in the 1990s that caused the death of 30,000 people. Actually, its separatist government is intensely supported, but not officially recognized as independent, by Armenia. While Turkey strongly supports Azerbaijan and Russia has a military agreement with Armenia.
