YEREVAN/BAKU (AZERBAIJAN/ARMENIA) – Fierce fighting between Azeri and Armenian troops near Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday has put under strain the newly declared ceasefire.
The truce, which was declared on Saturday, has had little effect on the cessation of hostilities which began on Sept. 27. There are fears that it could escalate into a bigger conflict, sucking in Russia as well as Turkey.
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian blamed Turkey for creating instability in the South Caucasus with the tacit support of Azerbaijan, its ally. He said he did not advocate a military intervention by Russia, which has a defence agreement with the country.
“What I’m preaching is not involving Russia and then tomorrow Iran and a third party, and making Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Caucasus another Syria,” he said.
“What I’m saying here is that instead of talking about involving Russia, we have to talk about excluding Turkey, which has a completely destructive role here.”
Turkey has denied the accusations of its foe Armenia as well as France and Russia that it sent mercenaries from the conflict zone in Syria and Libya to the disputed mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which broke away from Azerbaijan when the USSR collapsed.
In his comments to Azerbaijan’s parliament, Turkish Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop painted Armenia as the aggressor and flayed the mediation led for years by France, the United States and Russia under the auspices of the OSCE security watchdog.
“If they are sincere on their path to peace, those who have held Armenia’s leash and supported it for years need to end this dangerous game now and stop supporting Armenia. Azerbaijan does not have another 30 years to wait,” he said, adding that the OSCE’s Nagorno-Karabakh mediating panel, called the Minsk Group, “is brain dead”.
