Turkish Defense Minister personally controlled Azerbaijani attack against Artsakh – Kommersant

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, ARMENPRESS. The diplomatic and military sources of Russian ‘’Kommersant”” newspaper have informed that Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar personally controlled the attacks of Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh during the period of September 28-30.

ARMENPRESS reports the newspaper published an extended article presenting in detail the military-technical support of Turkey to Azerbaijan in its war against Artsakh.

The newspaper informs that the military operations were pre-planned and provoked by the military-political leadership of Turkey. According to the sources of the newspaper, during the recent months Ankara intensively provoked Baku to launch military operations, promising multilateral political and diplomatic, intelligence and military-technical support.

‘’Following the Turkish-Azerbaijani joint military exercises of July-August, large number of Turkish military units have remained in the territory of Azerbaijan with the goal to coordinate and lead the offensive operations against Nagorno Karabakh. It’s about 600 servicemen, including a tactical unit of 200 servicemen, 50 commanders in Nakhichevan, 90 military advisers in Baku, 120-member flight-tactical group at Gabala air base, 20 drone operators at Dollyar airport, 50 commanders at Yevlakh airport, 50 commanders in the 4th Army Corps and 20 people at the Naval Base and the Military Institute of Baku’’, the sources of the newspaper said.

During the most fierce moment of the military operations, September 28-30, Defense Minister of Turkey Hulusi Akar and Commanderof the TurkishLand Forces GeneralÜmit Dündar arrived in Azerbaijan. The sources of Komersant assure that they carried out the general command of the operations on the Karabakh front.

The sources of Kommersant informed that on October 9, 200 units of machine guns and ammunition were delivered through the Amman-Baku flight to Azerbaijan using Georgia as a transit country. Earlier, Turkey had sent an application for using Georgian air space for transit flights on October 14, 21 and 28. The sources of the newspaper inform that permits were given for all the flights.

‘’Turkey’s representatives recruit mercenaries from Ankara-backed Islamism groups fighting in in Syria and Libya, who will fight in Nagorno Karabakh conflict from the Azerbaijani side. Their transportation is carried out with the support of the Turkish Defense Ministry. During the 1st week of October, up to 1300 Syrian militants and at least 150 Libyan mercenaries have been transported to Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone. The mercenaries have been promised up to 2000 USD monthly salary. The 1st group of the mercenaries had been sent to Azerbaijan on September 22, who passed a two-week training in Syria with a Turkish commander. They are members of Faylaq al-Sham, Sultan Murad Division, and Firqatal-Hamza groups.

In the period of September-October, Turkey also transported a great amount of military equipment and ammunition to Azerbaijan’’, writes Komersant.