RUSSIA and Turkey stand together in condemning Armenia’s invasion of Azerbaijan and may send a joint peacekeeping force to the region, the Turkish Prime Minister, Tansu Ciller, said yesterday. Mrs Ciller was speaking to reporters after meeting the Russian ‘Prime Minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin, and President Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin.

Turkey, a member of Nato, has given moral support to the Muslim Azeris in their five-year-old war with the Christian Armenians over the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh while Moscow, officially neutral, has in practice leaned towards Armenia. But Russia changed its attitude this summer when Armenians from Nagorny Karabakh started pushing beyond the mountain enclave into southern Azerbaijan, taking some 20 per cent of their neighbour’s territory and creating a refugee crisis.

Mrs Ciller expressed satisfaction that the Russians had shown “considerable understanding” for Ankara’s position. “Both sides agreed that the Armenian aggression should be stopped, that the invasion must be reversed,” she said. But Turkey and Russia had gone further and agreed to co-operate. “If a peace force is required, the two nations may take this up as required.”

Before coming to Moscow, Mrs Ciller had issued a warning that if Armenia touched Nakhichevan, a tiny Azeri enclave sandwiched between Armenia and Turkey, then Turkey would become involved in the military conflict. But yesterday Mire Ciller, whose country has reinforced its troops near the border with Armenia, was at pains to calm fears. “We see no immediate threat to Nakhichevan. We are watching what our neighbours do. It is reasonable that we should be concerned about our own region.”

The Turkish Foreign Minister, Hikmet Cetin, said he was not alarmed at the moment that Iranian forces had penetrated just inside southern Azerbaijan to help refugees who have fled from the Armenians. Neither has Moscow voiced undue concern. Yesterday the acting Azeri leader, Haydar Aliev, said he was ready for peace talks with Armenia. And Armenia’s President Levon Ter Petrosian was reported to have told the Iranians that Karabakh forces would stop attacking Azerbaijan, and gradually withdraw from its territory.

Tansu Ciller, on her first foreign trip since becoming Turkey’s Prime Minister, with Viktor Chernomyrdin before their talks. (Photograph: Boris Yurchenko AP)

Publication date 09/10/1993

Courtesy of Karabagh Truths platform