Armenian Ambassador to Syria speaks to “Al-Watan Online”
DAMASCUS- The Armenian Ambassador to Damascus Dikran Kevorkian has affirmed that the provocative actions of the Turkish armed forces in the disputed province of Nagorno-Karabakh seriously threaten regional security and impede the international community’s efforts to stop hostilities. He called on foreign powers to refrain from escalating the conflict.
In an exclusive interview with the Damascus-based “al-Watan” local newspaper, Kevorkian said that Armenia is preparing relevant documents to submit them to international courts, and it has already submitted a document to the European Court for Human Rights, regarding the bombing of peaceful Armenian “settlements” and the killing of their residents.
He stressed that the presence of terrorists in Azerbaijan is an undeniable fact and that according to different sources the terrorists number thousands. He said that Azerbaijan does not allow the provision of accurate data about the number of mercenaries who were killed on the battlefield, noting that more than a hundred of these mercenaries have been killed so far.
Kevorkian expressed his confidence that the international community, especially the concerned parties, understand the long-term goals of the Azerbaijani-Turkish cooperation that aims at turning the war in Nagorno Karabakh into a regional conflict. He asserted that Karabakh today is fighting terrorism represented in the Azerbaijani-Turkish stand.
The Armenian diplomat affirmed that his country feels the open, full and unconditional support of the Syrian people for the Armenian people and for the Republic of Armenia, recalling the statements of President Bashar Al-Assad, in which he affirmed that the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is behind the current escalation in Karabakh, which is the main reason behind the exacerbation of the recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The army of Azerbaijan, supported militarily by the Turkish regime and its mercenary terrorists, launched a large-scale attack along the borders of Nagorno Karabakh, targeting settlements and peaceful residential areas, including the capital Stepanakert and a number of other settlements, according to Kevorkian.
He said that Armenia strongly condemns “the unprecedented attack of the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan on Nagorno Karabakh, and affirms that it will spare no effort to protect the people of Karabakh, and respond appropriately through political and military means, holding the political and military leadership of Azerbaijan responsible for the ongoing “aggression”.
The ambassador pointed out that Turkey has unconditionally supported Azebaijan in the conflict over Karabakh since the nineties of last century through imposing a land blockade against Armenia, but Turkey’s current support for the ongoing aggression by Azerbaijan is represented in the direct presence of Turkish forces in the battlefields.
Kevorkian made it clear that the Azebaijani President Ilham Aliyev openly rejects the peace process and asserts that the settlement of the Karabakh conflict will only be attained through a large-scale war, and, to achieve this goal, Azerbaijan is receiving wide-scale military and political support from Turkey. He said that many Turkish soldiers are fighting side by side with Azerbaijani forces, using Turkish-made weapons including drones and warplanes. He added that Turkey also has recruited a large number of terrorists and transferred them to Azerbaijan to participate in the war and it provided huge media support.
On ways of holding Turkey accountable for sending mercenaries to fight in the Karabakh war, the Armenian ambassador said that the Turkish provocative actions threaten regional peace and impede international efforts to cease hostilities, pointing out that Armenia is now preparing documents about the Azerbaijani army’s shelling of peaceful Armenian areas and intends to submit them to international courts.
Kevorkian asserted that the Armenian people, in Karabakh and Armenia, are resisting the Azerbaijani-Turkish unprecedented attack and the Armenian army is fighting to death on the land of “Karabakh” and the battles continue, claiming lives from both sides. He said that he is confident that the international community understands the long-term goals of the Azerbaijani-Turkish alliance to turn the war in Nagorno-Karabakh into a regional conflict, stressing that Karabakh today is fighting terrorism represented by the Azerbaijani-Turkish alliance.
As for the deployment of peacekeepers, these issues could be discussed in a broader context within the framework of the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe OSCE he said.
Hamda Mustafa