Turkey continues intervention in Karabakh peace efforts – Armenian official

A deputy foreign minister of Armenia has condemned Turkey for a continuing intervention in the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) peace efforts.

Shavarsh Kocharyan voiced his concerns in comments to Armenpress as he was asked to elaborate on a recent statement made by the country’s defense minister.

“It is not the first time Turkey makes harmful attempts to intervene in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. And it is yet another reason preventing from fixing progress in the conflict settlement process. It is due to Ankara’s non-constructive unilateral approaches - running counter to the positions of the three co-chairs representing the OSCE Minsk Group - that Armenia always called upon Turkey to keep away of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process,” he said.

Turkish Defense Minister  Nurettin Canikli expressed his support to Azerbaijan at a news conference in Baku, saying that the Turkish and Azerbaijani armed forces are united and ready, upon necessity, to offer assistance to each other.

“Defending our lands isn't enough. We must by all means liberate Karabakh, which is under occupation. Those are Azerbaijani lands, so we must, sooner or later, lift the Armenian occupation. But we need to be stronger for that. This is why it is important for us to embark on the manufacturing of the entire military equipment necessary for the defense of those lands, and ourselves,” the Turkish official said.