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The three states called for an immediate ceasefire and unconditional peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This arises from communications from the Kremlin and the Presidential Palace in Paris.
Erdogan considers the measure “unacceptable”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responded with strong criticism of the initiative. “With the United States, Russia and France neglecting this issue for 30 years, it is unacceptable for them to get involved in efforts to achieve a ceasefire,” Erdogan said in parliament in Ankara.
French President Emmanuel Macron has raised suspicions that Turkey is more involved in the conflict than it wants to admit. According to French information, fighters from jihadist groups from Syria who arrived in the region through Turkey are active in the conflict zone, Macron said before the start of the special EU summit in Brussels. He spoke of a “very serious matter.” This should be discussed with the other EU heads of state and government. Armenia had previously accused Turkey of sending around 4,000 fighters from northern Syria to Azerbaijan.
Dozens of people are said to have been killed and hundreds injured since the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh last Sunday. Azerbaijan’s attorney general said on Thursday that a civilian had been killed in the city of Terter and that the train station had been badly damaged by Armenian shelling.
Armenia said that two French journalists were seriously injured in an artillery attack on the town of Martuni. France wants to take the two reporters home by plane. A machine with medical equipment is ready to start, Macron said. He confirmed that the journalists belong to the editorial team of the newspaper “Le Monde”.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting for Nagorno-Karabakh, which is inhabited mainly by Armenians, since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The South Caucasus region with around 150,000 inhabitants is not recognized as independent by any state.
Armenia is allied with Russia and has the support of France. Together with the US, Russia and France they form the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The group, founded in 1992, is supposed to help resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Turkey is allied with Azerbaijan and has pledged its support for the country.
