Escalation of situation in Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone by Turkey would be “suicide”: Russian expert

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Escalation of tension in the Line of Contact of Karabakh-Azerbaijani opposing armies fits in logic of Baku’s traditional policy. Azerbaijan attempts to regularly make provocations on the border, aimed at showing to the international community that the Karabakh conflict has not been settled yet. Expert on Caucasus issuesAndrey Yepifantsev expressed such an opinion during his conversation with “Armenpress”.

“It is clear that today the international community has other issues to focus on, first it was focused on Ukraine, then the Middle East, Syria and nowadays – Iraq. Border peace is not within Baku’s interests. It must draw international community’s attention in some way, so it takes such actions,” the expert said.

In reply to the question “Is it possible that Turkey is the reason for the escalation of tension on the border?”, the expert replied that there had been statements related to the Karabakh issues made by Turkish officials, but Turkey’s intervention in the tension on the border is hardly probable.

“If we look at the developments in Turkey and outside of it, we can say that Turkey’s relations with the neighbors have been tense recently. In particular, with Iran, Russia, Israel, Syria, problems with the USA. So taking actions in Karabakh in these conditions is simply “suicide”,” the expert said.

According to the expert, countries of the region, namely Azerbaijan, have found themselves in an unfavorable situation due to the escalation of Russian-Turkish relations. Azerbaijan’s strategic partner Turkey is on one side, and Russia - with which Azerbaijan maintains good relations - is on the other side. So such situation is created where a questions arises – Is Azerbaijan with Turkey or Russia? In expert’s opinion Azerbaijan will try to avoid the situation.

In regard to the meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, he said that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is in a complicated stage, and it is difficult to expect any progress in the negotiation process now.

For the first time Azerbaijan opened fire from tank on fighting positions located in the southern part of the Karabakh Defense Army on December 8 and during the night of December 9. The adversary also applied TR-107 artillery rocket. Contract soldier Garik Gurgen Avanesyan (born in 1991) sustained mortal gunshot wound at one of the fighting positions located in the eastern direction of the Defense Army at approximately 21:10, December 8, due to the shot the rival fired from large caliber sniper rifle. Soldier of Artsakh Defense Army Karen Armen Grigoryan, born in 1995, also sustained mortal gunshot wound from a sniper rifle at approximately 20:40, December 11.