T he issue of Turkey’s involvement and direct intervention in the hostilities against Artsakh became topical in Western and particularly in American media, expert and political circles. The nature and content of responses allow us to say, that there is concern in Washington about Ankara’s involvement in the hostilities and Turkey’s attempts to change the quota of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. The expert field is especially concerned about the issue of Turkey’s transporting mercenaries and terrorists to Azerbaijan. 

It’s noteworthy, that in the days of Azerbaijani military aggression against Artsakh, the issue of moving the US military weapons from the Incirlik air base in Turkey to Greece became relevant again in the Western press and in the White House. Experts say that this may be due to Ankara’s direct intervention in Artsakh hostilities. It should be noted, that recently the topic became quite relevant as a result of Turkey’s aggression against Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean. However, under international and regional pressure, Turkey had to temporarily restrain its illegal activities in the Eastern Mediterranean.  

Let’s remind, that on September 28, 2020, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias accepted the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It’s noteworthy that a few days after the Pompeo-Dendias meeting, we learned about Greek Foreign Minister N. Dendias’ intention of upcoming visit to Armenia [1].

The US Secretary of State Pompeo refereed to the hostilities in Artsakh in an interview with FOX News: “We are urging a ceasefire…Outsiders ought to stay out” [2]. We think, that Turkey is the addressee of Pompeo’s mentioned “outsiders”. It should be taken into account, that Turkey is not a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group and therefore cannot be involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

On October 1, 2020, the RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a telephone conversation with the US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien. The press release of the RA Prime Minister mentions: “Ambassador O’Brien expressed deep concern on the part of the United States over the situation in the South Caucasus. He reaffirmed the U.S. interest in establishing an immediate ceasefire, achieving stability, and the United States’ readiness to be of service to Armenia and the region. Ambassador O’Brien stressed that there is no military solution to the conflict and went on to reaffirm the position expressed by the U.S. President in today’s joint statement made with Presidents Putin and Macron.

The Prime Minister gave details of the current situation. Nikol Pashinyan stressed the fact of Turkey’s involvement in hostilities and the deployment of Syrian mercenaries and terrorists in Azerbaijan. The Premier highlighted the need to oust the mercenaries and terrorists from the region, without which a ceasefire is impossible” [3].

Let’s note that the fact of organizing a phone conversation is already an address message. The following thought voiced by the Ambassador O'Brien deserves attention: “Ambassador O'Brien reaffirmed the U.S. interest in establishing an immediate ceasefire, achieving stability and the United States’ readiness to be of service to Armenia and the region”. It should be noted that “Azerbaijan” is not mentioned in the text, instead the wording “Armenia and the region” is mentioned.

The editorial of the authoritative American CNN also touched upon the issue of Turkey’s recruitment from Syria, Libya and transporting them to Azerbaijan. CNN talked to a Syrian, who also moved Azerbaijan from Syria in order to participate in hostilities against Artsakh. The latter is from the city of Afrin in Syria and is affiliated with the “Syrian National Army” terrorist group, joined to move to Azerbaijan. “I voluntarily did that and 90% of my unit signed up. They told us that they will give us $1,500 a month. Our contracts are for three months” [4].

On October 1, famous New York Times published an article about Turkey’s destabilizing practices in various regions: “When a long-simmering conflict in the south Caucasus burst into open warfare this week, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the first world leader to jump into the fray. His mission was not to calm tensions between the warring parties, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Instead, he declared all-out support for the Azerbaijanis, close Turkic allies, and accused Armenia of ignoring efforts to negotiate a resolution” [5]. 

Recently James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO expressed his opinion on hostilities: “Over the four years I was at NATO, there were a number of half-hearted military thrusts by the Azeris, which were easily stopped by the Armenians. Our intelligence assessments found that the Armenians were almost certain to win if things came seriously to blows” [6].

We can say that as a result of the operative-effective work of the political, diplomatic and information parties of the Armenian sides, the 3 co-chair states of the OSCE Minsk Group reaffirmed the reality of Turkey’s direct involvement in the hostilities. France and Russia officially announced the transfer of terrorist groups to Azerbaijan from Turkey. On October 2, the US Secretary of State Pompeo stated in one of the interviews: “I am aware of the publications on the transfer of Syrian mercenaries from Turkey to Azerbaijan. We saw Syrian fighters taken from the battlefields in Syria to Libya.

That created more instability, more turbulence, more conflict, more fighting, less peace.  I think it would do the same thing in the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh as well. Therefore, I hope that reporting proves inaccurate” [7].

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[1]  https://orbeli.am/en/post/594/2020-10-02

[2] https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mike-pompeo

[3] https://www.primeminister.am/hy/press-release

[4] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/01/middleeast

[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/world/

[6] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles

[7] https://www.state.gov/secretary-michael-r-pompeo