Armenians accuse Turkey of involvement in conflict with Azerbaijan

While there is no confirmation of the many Armenian allegations of material support from Turkey, the vigorous rhetorical support from Azerbaijan’s ally has been undeniable.

As fighting between Armenians and Azerbaijanis continued for a second day, Armenian officials accused Turkey of directly intervening in the conflict by supplying weaponry and soldiers. Turkish officials and media, meanwhile, continued to loudly cheer on the Azerbaijani military offensive with unprecedented enthusiasm.

Several officials from Armenia and the Armenia-backed de facto Nagorno Karabakh Republic have directly accused Turkey of supplying weapons and of bringing in militia groups to support the Azerbaijani offensive.

“Turkish military experts are fighting side by side with Azerbaijan, who are using the Turkish weapons, including UAVs and warplanes,” the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a September 28 statement. “According to credible sources, Turkey is recruiting and transporting foreign terrorist fighters to Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, Turkey provides full political and propaganda support to Azerbaijan at the highest level of its leadership.”

 Turkey’s authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is globally notorious as an aggressive bully. And a Turkish military intervention against Armenia would create an inevitable, ugly resonance with the 1915 genocide of ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.