Armenia, Azerbaijan, Accusations and Denials As They Battle Over Nagorno-Karabakh

"I heavily doubt [the involvement of Syrian mercenaries on behalf of the Azerbaijani side, since those reported to have been sent were Sunni]."

"The deployment of Sunni Syrian fighters in Azerbaijan, a borderland of Russia's predominantly Sunni regions of Dagestan and Chechnya, would never [be] tolerated by Moscow [or] by Iran."

"Even hypothetically, that would enable their further penetration into Russia's southern regions. The same goes [for Iran, which ] opposes Sultan Murad's and Hamza Brigade's activity in Syria."

Zaur Gasimov, senior research fellow, University of Bonn

 

"[Turkey is responsible for sending up to 1,000 Syrian fighters to Azerbaijan so far]. It is clear to me that Turkey is trying to create quite large groups of jihadists controlled by it for them to help their ally Azerbaijan."

Turkish studies specialist Ruben Safrastian, Armenia's National Academy of Sciences

 

"When we first started being offered work abroad in Libya, people were afraid to go there, but now there are definitely thousands of us who are willing to go to either Libya or Azerbaijan."  

"There is nothing for us here."

Anonymous Syrian fighter

 

"I didn't want to go, but I don't have any money."

"Life is very hard and poor."

Fighter who belongs to the Turkish-backed rebel group Ahrar al-Sham

As Armenian and Azerbaijani forces fight in and around the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, the two sides are lobbing accusations over Turkey reportedly deploying Syrian rebels to help its Muslim-majority ally, Baku.

"[There are reports of Syrian fighters being sent to Azerbaijan] to take part in these combat activities."
"By the way, there already is information that clashes have already taken place among these mercenaries and local Azerbaijanis, because these mercenaries are trying to impose Shari'a law in these villages, they go to local shops demanding that they stop selling alcoholic beverages, etc."

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian

 

"[According to] information that is coming in, fighters from illegal armed formations are being sent to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, including from Syria and Libya, to participate directly in the military action." 

"[Moscow is] deeply concerned about these processes [which would] lead to further escalation of tension in the conflict zone [and] create long-term threats to the security of all countries in the region."
"[Governments must] take effective steps to prevent the use of terrorists and mercenaries in the conflict [and to] withdraw them from the region without delay."

Russian Foreign Ministry 

Screenshot from video titled "The annihalation of Azerbaijani tanks and manpower" (Credit: Armenian Ministry of Defense -- YouTube)

 

Accusations and denials. And gross interference. Where near-abroad powers should be making every effort to calm the relations once again between the two bitter enemies, Turkey has chosen to assure Azerbaijan that its claim to Nagorno-Karabakh is just and Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government is prepared to aid them in achieving the objective of reunification. The majority Armenian population of the disputed territory will just have to adjust to the new reality being imposed upon it. And Armenia will pay a heavy price in Turkish involvement should it continue to resist.

It is precisely Turkey's involvement that represents an impediment to the warring parties coming to their senses by rejecting the violence of conflict and agreeing to diplomatic means instead. Turkey has had ample experience in vigorously forcing its view of sovereignty on Greece, when it illegally invaded Cyprus, a gross insult to the lawful order of the international community. And since Turkey's heavy hand is involved in every area surrounding its geographic sovereignty, yet another one further identifies the Islamofascism of Erdogan's Turkey.

Turkey reiterates that is is "fully committed" to helping Azerbaijan recover its "occupied" lands to return it to the Azeris who were driven out in the civil war of the early '90s. Turkey's support of the Palestinian-Arab claim "from the river to the sea" where it insists Israel is squatting on traditional Palestinian Arab land, and not Biblical Judean heritage, resonates with Turkey which aligns itself readily with another Muslim Sunni country against the Armenians who sullied the reputation of the Ottoman Empire with its plaints of genocide.

Ruins of the town of Agdam, controlled by Nagorno-Karabakh, completely destroyed during the fighting between Karabakh and Azerbaijan forces in the 1990s. David Mdzinarishvili, Reuters

 

All eyes swivel toward Azerbaijan in the convincing speculation that it plans to launch a full-scale military incursion into Nagorno-Karabakh, with the considerable assistance of its estimable protector boasting the second largest army in the NATO alliance. Armenia's claims that a Turkish fighter jet had shot down one of its warplanes is denied vigorously by Azerbaijan as "propaganda". Armenian border towns have been bombed by Azeri warplanes which haven't been averse to flying beyond Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenian sovereign territory, a notable escalation.

In Nagorno-Karabakh local officials  count their dead servicemen to 85. "This is a life-and-death war" Arayik Harutyunyan, president of the Nagorno-Karabakh region stated. World powers appeal for calm while both Armenia's and Azerbaijan's leaders continue to exchange insults, each painting the other as tyrants eager to lead their nations into a conflict that may accomplish nothing of human value.  "If the international community is not capable of stopping Armenia's reckless dictator, then Azerbaijan will do it", Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev announced.

In response, Aliyev is accused of operating a dictatorship feeding on "Armenophobia", according to Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia's prime minister. When Nagorno-Karabakh separated from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, the conflict that ensued saw 30,000 people dying. That oil-rich Azerbaijan now in possession of drone weaponry able to knock out Armenian tank units defending Nagorno-Karabakh's mountainous geology, leads UN diplomats to fear a repeat of the earlier bloodshed.

Both countries are in possession of long-range missiles capable of striking each other's major cities. But Azerbaijan clearly has the advantage of leaning on the active military involvement of bellicose Turkey whose actions find great disfavour with Moscow whose interests lie in efforts to restrain the violence from spreading regionally, apart from the fact that Russia is an ally of Armenia, equipped with Soviet-era armoured vehicles, destroyed by Azeri drones. 

 

Should Turkey continue to press so avidly, all eyes should be on Vladimir Putin's response. Turkey is elevating the conflict, Russia attempts to mediate between the two warring states.