Pashinyan says Turkey seeks to continue Armenian genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the actions of Turkey and Azerbaijan amounted to a "terroristic attack" over Nagorno-Karabakh that formed part of the continuation of Armenian genocide. "Let us look at what Turkey is implementing in the Mediterranean in Libya in Syria, Iraq. To me there is no doubt that this is a policy of continuing the Armenian genocide and a policy of reinstating the Turkish empire," Pashinyan said.
Duvar English
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the actions of Turkey and Azerbaijan amounted to a "terroristic attack" over Nagorno-Karabakh that formed part of the continuation of Armenian genocide.
"Let us look at what Turkey is implementing in the Mediterranean in Libya in Syria, Iraq. To me there is no doubt that this is a policy of continuing the Armenian genocide and a policy of reinstating the Turkish empire," Pashinyan told Sky News.
The Armenian genocide refers to the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide.
According to Pashinyan, Turkey's "full support" motivated its ally Azerbaijan to reignite fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
"Firstly, Turkey has become fully engaged, encouraging and inciting the conflict. Turkey has also transported mercenaries and terrorists from the territory of Syria to the conflict zone which is changing the whole context," he said.
"This is becoming essentially Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia's struggle against international terrorism," he added.
Azerbaijan and Turkey - which has promised unqualified support to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in his efforts to reverse the country's defeat in the last war in the early 1990s - deny engaging mercenaries in the conflict.
Pashinyan repeated his negotiating stance that any peace settlement should be acceptable to the peoples of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, even though the Azerbaijani leadership has refused to negotiate with the unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh leadership.
He also refused to acknowledge that Armenia had any obligation under international law to withdraw troops from territories conquered in the conflict in the early 1990s, saying that had applied to the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous forces and had nothing to do with Armenia.