United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticised Turkey for interfering in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the side of the Azerbaijanis. The most recent battle between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region, known as Artsakh in Armenia, flared up on the 27th of September and has so far resulted in hundreds of deaths.
Recent evidence has shown that Turkey is assisting Azerbaijan by sending Jihadi fighters to help fight in their cause. This includes fighters from the Hamza Brigade, a fanatical Islamic group that has fought on behalf of Turkey in both Syria and Libya and has been accused of war-crimes including rape and mass-killings.
Mike Pompeo said in an interview with WSB Atlanta:
"We now have the Turks, who have stepped in and provided resources to Azerbaijan, increasing the risk, increasing the firepower that's taking place in this historic fight. The resolution of that conflict ought to be done through negotiation and peaceful discussions, not through armed conflict, and certainly not with third party countries coming in to lend their firepower to what is already a powder keg of a situation. We're hopeful that the Armenians will be able to defend against what the Azerbaijanis are doing, and that they will all, before that takes place, get the ceasefire right, and then sit down at the table and try and sort through this."
The comments come as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia never considered Turkey a strategic ally. In an interview, he backed Pompeo's position regarding the Artsakh conflict and stepped back from giving any support to the Turks. He said:
"We have never considered Turkey as our strategic ally. It [Turkey] is a close partner, that partnership has strategic nature in many areas. We do not agree with the position expressed by Turkey, which has also been expressed several times by [Azerbaijani] President [Ilham] Aliyev."
The region of Artsakh sits within Azerbaijani territory but is however populated by ethnic Armenians who say they are persecuted by the Azerbaijani state and by the Azerbaijani Muslim majority. As such, they seek independence or a reunification with Armenia. Armenia states that should it withdraw any forces or defence for the civilian population from the Artsakh region, it would leave the ethnic Armenians liable to ethnic cleansing at the hands of Jihadis, such as the ones intentionally shipped from Turkey.
A short-lived ceasefire negotiated in Moscow fell apart after just a couple of hours after Azerbaijani forces shelled a church and town in the Artsakh region. It is hoped that a peaceful solution may be found soon.
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