Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has arrived for a meeting with Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, as thousands of ethnic Armenians are fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of Baku’s military victory over the separatist region’s fighters last week.
The Turkish president’s office revealed that Erdogan is visiting Azerbaijan’s autonomous Nakhchivan exclave on Monday to discuss the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Erdogan, who will meet with Aliyev and conduct a news conference, will also go to a groundbreaking and an opening ceremony in the area, according to state media.
Last week, following a 24-hour military campaign by the significantly larger Azerbaijani military, Armenian rebels in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region that is recognized by the international community as belonging to Azerbaijan but has a majority of ethnic Armenians, were compelled to ceasefire. While Azerbaijan has promised to protect their rights, the majority of Karabakh Armenians do not believe this guarantee.
The Armenian government released a statement saying that more than 2,900 persons had entered Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh as of 5am (01:00 GMT) on Monday.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that he anticipated that 120,000 inhabitants would evacuate the area for Armenia due to “the danger of ethnic cleansing”.
Armenia has asked the UN to send a mission to Nagorno-Karabakh to keep an eye on security and human rights.
Erdogan backed Azerbaijan’s most recent military campaign, which it began on Tuesday, last week.
According to Yerevan, the operation, which received harsh criticism from Western nations, resulted in more than 200 fatalities and 400 injuries.
Pashinyan attributed Russia’s failure to Armenia. He is currently facing demonstrations and calls for his resignation for failing the ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
Follow us on:
