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According to its own account, Russia now has its own evidence of the presence of mercenaries in the fight for the region of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Armed fighters from the war zones in Syria and Libya would be deployed there, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow announced on its website. Russia demanded the immediate withdrawal of these foreign fighters from the illegal groups.
Moscow’s Foreign Ministry expressed concern that the deployment of foreign fighters would worsen the situation and pose a long-term threat to security in the region. “We call on the leaderships of the states involved to ensure that there are no terrorists and mercenaries used in the conflict and that they are removed from there immediately,” the statement said. After a phone call with his colleagues in Baku and Yerevan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reaffirmed Moscow’s willingness to mediate the conflict and provide spaces for talks.
Armenia spoke of 4,000 Islamist militants that Turkey had brought from northern Syria to the southern Caucasus. Azerbaijan, for its part, claimed that ethnic Armenians from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries were involved in the fighting. The parties to the conflict rejected the use of mercenaries as fake news. Russia had announced a review of the information and now it has been made public with the announcement of its own references to mercenaries.
Putin calls for a ceasefire
Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron called on the conflicting parties to “show the utmost restraint and stop the fire as soon as possible.” In a phone call on Wednesday night, the two heads of state expressed concern and, according to the Tass agency, emphasized that the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh could only be resolved through diplomatic channels.
Moscow has traditionally been the main mediator in the conflict due to its close ties with Baku and Yerevan. According to official Armenian figures, more than 100 people have died in Nagorno-Karabakh in the heaviest fighting in decades, most of them soldiers. Azerbaijan has confirmed the deaths of more than a dozen civilians so far, but no soldiers.
The two former Soviet republics have been fighting for decades over the mountainous region, which is home to some 145,000 people. Armenia controls Nagorno-Karabakh, but under international law it belongs to Islamic Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost control of the area in a war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union some 30 years ago. Now it is inhabited by Armenian Christians from Karabakh. Since 1994 there has been a fragile ceasefire. Turkey is on the side of Azerbaijan in the conflict, while Armenia sees Russia as a protective power.
