YEREVAN, OCTOBER 2, ARMENPRESS. President of France Emmanuel Macron has announced that more than 300 Syrian Islamist militants have been transferred through Turkey’s Gaziantep into the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone and are involved from the Azerbaijani side in the military operations.

International news media reported that France has confirmed that this is a proven fact and that Russia also possesses this information.

Macron added that France is closely working with the other co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia and the US – and that they are jointly preparing peaceful initiatives for the NK situation.

“I can announce that more than 300 Syrian Islamist militants, who had earlier left the Aleppo region, have been transferred to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone through the Turkish Gaziantep. This is a confirmed fact, these people are identified, all of them are affiliated with the Islamic State terrorist organization. I have discussed this issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who confirmed that Russia also possesses this information,” Macron told reporters.

The French President said these actions by NATO-member Turkey are unacceptable. He said Turkey has crossed the red line.

Azerbaijani armed forces launched a massive military attack on Artsakh on September 27. Since then, 11 civilians have been killed and more than 60 were wounded amid Azeri bombardments of towns and cities of Artsakh. Amid the ongoing Turkish-backed attack on Artsakh, the Azeri forces also began attacking Armenia, killing a civilian and bombing a passenger bus in the town of Vardenis.

A Turkish F-16 shot down an Armenian Armed Forces SU-25 jet in Armenian airspace on September 29. 

Then, on October 1, the Azeri forces shelled the Shatvan village of Armenia, and attacked the Mets Masrik village with a combat drone, killing one civilian and wounding two others. Several Azeri recon drones breached the Armenian airspace and were shot down near Yerevan late on October 1.

The Artsakh military reported earlier that 103 of its servicemen have been killed in action since the attack began. More than 120 troops are wounded.

On October 1 the authorities said that Azeri forces lost nearly 1300 servicemen since the beginning of the attack. The Azeri military also suffered huge losses of equipment – 95 UAVs, 12 gunships, 181 tanks and armored equipment, 5 warplanes, 2 Smerch and 3 TOS1A heavy artillery systems.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan