Erdogan Denies Pro-Turkey Syrians Joining Fight in Nagorno-Karabakh

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday denied claims that Turkey had sent Syrian militants in support of its ally Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Those who call us say ‘you sent there the mujahideen from Syria’. We don’t have any such agenda,” Erdogan said in a televised speech. Earlier this month French President Emmanuel Macron accused Ankara of having sent Syrian “jihadists” to the region, accusing Turkey of crossing a “red line”. Erdogan said Wednesday: “They say ‘you are sending mujahideen from Syria to Azerbaijan.’ They (mujahideen) have work to do on their own lands, they wouldn’t go there.” Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics, have for decades been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian area that broke away from Azerbaijan in a 1990s war that cost about 30,000 lives. Azerbaijan has never hidden its desire to win back control and no state has ever recognized Nagorno-Karabakh’s declaration of independence. Source: AFP




Related Contents

Syrian President Assad to face two rivals in this month's presidential vote

Syria's Supreme Constitutional Court has accepted three applications out of 51 for candidacy for this month's presidential election in the conflict-stricken Arab country.

|

Syria’s President Assad grants amnesty for certain crimes

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has issued a legislative decree, authorizing the release of prisoners including those convicted for misdemeanors as well as minors facing certain charges.

|

Russia: US uses Daesh to hinder political solution to crisis in Syria

Russia says the United States makes use of the Daesh terrorist group to impede a political solution to the decade-long crisis in Syria and supports separatist militants in a flagrant violation of international resolutions.

|

US military forces steal wheat crops in Syria’s Hasakah, move them to Iraq: SANA

A convoy of a dozen US military trucks has carried tons of grain from Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.

|

US trucks cross into Iraq with smuggled Syrian wheat: Report

Dozens of trucks carrying Syrian wheat crop from Hasakah province have crossed the border into Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region amid reports that the US military is systematically smuggling basic commodities out of Syria.

|