“We have information that indicates with certainty that Syrian fighters from jihadist groups have transited through [the Turkish city of] Gaziantep to reach the theatre of operations in Nagorno-Karabakh,” said French President Emmanuel Macron “This is a very serious new fact, which changes the situation.”
“We have agreed with President [Donald] Trump and President [Vladimir] Putin to exchange all the information we have on this situation and to draw all the consequences", Macron added as he arrived for a summit with other European Union leaders in Brussels.
According to Macron’s office, the French and Russian presidents “shared their concern regarding the sending of Syrian mercenaries by Turkey to Nagorno-Karabakh” when they spoke by phone on Wednesday night.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed serious concern over what it described as a dispatch of Syrian and Libyan “terrorists and mercenaries” to the Karabakh conflict zone. It demanded their “immediate withdrawal from the region.”
Russia’s Security Council discussed the matter at a meeting on Thursday chaired by Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they “noted the extreme danger in the region” emanating from the presence of jihadist fighters.
Unlike Macron, Moscow did not publicly and explicitly implicate Turkey in their recruitment, which has been reported by Western media and Syrian opposition sources since the outbreak on September 27 of heavy fighting around Karabakh.
Earlier this week, the Reuters news agency quoted two fighters from Islamist rebel groups in areas of northern Syria under Turkish control as saying that they are deploying to Azerbaijan in coordination with Ankara. One of them claimed that nearly 1,000 Syrians are set to be sent to Azerbaijan.
Turkey has denied sending mercenaries to take part in the conflict.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry likewise insisted on Thursday that no Syrian mercenaries have joined Azerbaijani troops fighting Armenian forces in Karabakh. “We strongly deny such claims and maintain that the Azerbaijani army does not need any outside forces to ensure the country’s territorial integrity,” the ministry said in a statement.
Armenia maintains that Islamist militants from the Middle East are participating in the hostilities in Karabakh. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian hailed the Russian and French statements confirming their presence.
“The international community has now clearly stated that the Azerbaijani-Turkish alliance is waging a war against Artsakh (Karabakh) and Armenia with the help and involvement of foreign terrorist fighters,” Pashinian said in a Facebook post.
He said the mercenaries also pose an equally serious security threat to the United States, Russia, France as well as Iran.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman reportedly warned on Wednesday that Tehran “will not allow terrorist groups in the areas adjacent to the northern borders of our country to become a center of threat against our national security.”