Russia Sounds Alarm at Terror Risk From Azeri-Armenia Fight
Russia, U.S., France Renew Push for Halt to Azeri-Armenia Fight
(Bloomberg) -- Russia said thousands of foreign militants from “terrorist organizations” are joining the fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, as it renewed calls with the U.S. and France for an immediate cease-fire.
The conflict is drawing in extremists “like a magnet” particularly from Middle East groups, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergei Naryshkin said in a website statement Tuesday. “We cannot but be concerned” that militants may “subsequently infiltrate into states adjacent to Azerbaijan and Armenia, including Russia.”
In some of the strongest official comments to date from Russia, Naryshkin also said Turkey’s decision “openly and unequivocally” to side with Azerbaijan was a fundamentally new factor in the crisis. His comments came as Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev praised Turkey for its support against Armenia in talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
The spy chief’s intervention came after U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian condemned the violence in Nagorno-Karabakh “in the strongest terms” in a statement late Monday. Similar calls have had no impact so far in halting the most intense fighting between Azerbaijanis and Armenians since Russia brokered a 1994 truce to halt a war that killed 30,000 and displaced 1 million.
While there’s no sign of any overt Russian intervention in the conflict, the Kremlin advanced similar arguments about the potential terrorist threat from Islamist groups to justify its 2015 decision to send its air force in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against opposition militants.
Aliyev and Turkey have denied allegations, including from French President Emmanuel Macron, that Syrian militants have entered Azerbaijan to join the fighting, despite reports and pictures of their presence on social media. They allege Kurdish militants are fighting alongside Armenians, something Armenia denies.
“Azerbaijan isn’t alone,” Aliyev told Cavusoglu in the capital, Baku. “A world power like Turkey is together with Azerbaijan.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh Monday for talks with military leaders, his office said in a statement.
The warring sides ignored a call for a truce Friday from the presidents of France, the U.S. and Russia, which act as the so-called Minsk Group of mediators that have tried for decades without success to resolve the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Backed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Aliyev has vowed to continue the military campaign until Armenian forces leave Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan taken during the 1990s war amid the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Armenia accuses Turkey of military involvement and has asked the international community to help. Turkey, which has the second-largest army after the U.S. in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, denies its forces are taking part in the fighting.
Russia has a military base in Armenia and the two nations have a mutual-defense pact, though it doesn’t cover the disputed territory.
The confrontation over Nagorno-Karabakh adds to tensions between Russia and Turkey over proxy conflicts in Syria and Libya
Russian President Vladimir Putin “doesn’t know how to contain” Erdogan, said Moscow-based analyst Arkady Dubnov. After limiting itself publicly to statements so far, Russia may resort to a “symbolic gesture such as ordering its forces in Armenia to hold a march or drills.”
Azerbaijan says it’s fighting to restore control over land internationally recognized as part of its territory. Armenia says it’s defending Nagorno-Karabakh’s right to self-determination after its Armenian majority declared independence.
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