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Nikol Pashinyan after the declaration of war in the Armenian Parliament on September 27th
Photo:
Tigran Mehrabyan / dpa
According to Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Turkey is to blame for the fact that the dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the South Caucasus has turned into a military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"Without the active intervention of Turkey, it would not have come to this," said the Armenian Prime Minister on Tuesday the AFP news agency.
Azerbaijan's decision to "start a war" was motivated by "Turkey's full support", said Pashinyan.
Should the conflict escalate further, Russia will intervene in favor of Armenia.
"Russia will honor its contractual obligations," said the head of government.
Dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh since the end of the Soviet Union
The former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting for decades over the mountainous region, in which around 145,000 people live.
Azerbaijan lost control of the area in a war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union some 30 years ago.
It is now inhabited by Christian Karabakh Armenians.
A ceasefire has actually been in place since 1994.
The self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is not recognized internationally and is considered part of Azerbaijan under international law.
Russia is historically considered to be Armenia's protective power and maintains a military base there.
At the same time, Moscow maintains good relations with Azerbaijan and supplies it with weapons.
The oil-rich Azerbaijan has had a military upgrade in recent years.
The Turkish-speaking country can count on Turkey as an ally.
Experts see it as proven that Ankara supports Azerbaijan with weapons.
Armenia repeatedly accuses Turkey of meddling in the fighting.
Turkish officers are supposed to lead the Azerbaijani military operations.
According to the Azerbaijani government, Turkey is not involved in the conflict as an ally of the country.
During a visit to Baku, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu again called on the international community to support Azerbaijan, as Armenia was the occupying power.
"To put these two countries on the same level means to reward the occupier," said Cavusoglu on Tuesday.
He added: "The world must be on the side of those who are right, namely Azerbaijan."
On the tenth day of the conflict, explosions were heard in Stepanakert, the capital of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, according to AFP reporters.
Shattered glass and debris littered the street in Stepanakert town center.
Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan have shown any tendency to stop their attacks.
Since the fighting began, reports on the number of victims have been incomplete.
According to this, at least 286 people have died in Nagorno-Karabakh, including more than 46 civilians.
Presumably, however, far more people died.
So far, the government in Baku has not reported any victims among its military personnel.
Russia: peacekeeping forces only if both sides agree
The so-called Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe tried to mediate: The group demanded an immediate end to the fighting and a return of the two warring ex-Soviet republics to the negotiating table.
Pashinyan also brought up Russian peacekeeping troops last week.
Moscow only wants to send Russian peacekeepers to the crisis region with the consent of Yerevan and Baku.
The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday evening, as the broadcaster RBK reported.
"Peacekeeping forces can only be deployed if both sides agree," he was quoted as saying.
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jak / dpa
