21.09.2020, Yerevan.
The Turkish factor is not only an element of the settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh, but it is also an issue of common security in the region. Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan stated this on September 18 at a meeting with political scientists, the video of which was published on Kocharyan’s official YouTube channel.
As the second president of Armenia noted, toughening of Turkey’s position has always protected Azerbaijan, but never before Turkey have had such readiness and willingness to demonstrate this as it is now. “To a certain extent, Turkey is trying to become a counterweight to Russia,” Kocharyan believes.
“Russia’s intervention in the April war was very active. Now Turkey wants to become a factor to be reckoned with. Tomorrow, if a border conflict errupts, Russia will have to negotiate not only with Aliyev but also with Erdoğan,” the second president of Armenia said.
According to him, Turkey coordinates its actions with Azerbaijan to create a counterweight to Russia. Kocharyan believes that the next step will be Turkey’s attempt to participate more actively in the negotiation process in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Having entered Syria, Turkey has established its presence there and it is obvious that no settlement in Syria today is possible without Ankara. It [Turkey] is trying to do the same here. We will only lose because of these actions. We must stop this. But we are not doing anything,” the former president emphasized.
“Turkey has shown that it is no longer possible for Paris or USA to point a finger at it. Turkey has big ambitions, and it has always had “eyes” for this region. Today, it is trying with very bold actions to secure its presence so that no one would take serious steps here without it,” Kocharyan said.
Since July 29 to mid-August, joint Azerbaijani-Turkish tactical and flight and tactical exercises took place on the territory of Azerbaijan (including Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic).
During the escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in July 2020, Turkey declared its full support for Azerbaijan’s actions. After that, Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) stated that Turkey cannot positively influence the peace process because of its bias.
The escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that occurred in 2016 was called the “April War”. On April 2, 2016, the armed forces of Azerbaijan carried out an offensive operation along the entire perimeter of the contact line with the army of Karabakh. The promotion of Azerbaijani forces was stopped, but Karabakh lost several hundred hectares of territory. The battles lasted for 4 days.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
