Davutoglu: Armenia Occupies Azerbaijan Lands with Russian Support

KIEV (Armenianow) — Russia is jeopardizing Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity by supporting Armenia, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stated during a visit to Ukraine.

As quoted by Ukrainian news agencies, speaking on February 15, Davutoglu also accused Russia of violating territorial integrity of Georgia, Ukraine and Syria.

“The new concept of Russian politics is expansionism and aggression,” the top Turkish official charged as Ankara and Moscow have increasingly been at loggerheads of the conflict in Syria.

The Russo-Turkish relations worsened dramatically last November after Turkish air forces shot down a Russian bomber at the Syrian border. Different geopolitical interests of the two regional powerhouses in Syria and the rest of the greater Middle East have increasingly antagonized Ankara and Moscow since then.

Russia, which has a military base in Armenia and is Armenia’s military ally as part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization defense pact, also acts as a mediator, along with the United States and France, in brokering a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The negotiations led by the three-party co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group have recently stalled, with Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanging blame for the lack of progress in the settlement process.

The Nagorno-Karabakh issue is likely to feature prominently during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Azerbaijan due on February 18.

Azerbaijan, which as an ethnic cousin of Turkey and its top ally in the South Caucasus region, has repeatedly accused the international mediators of their pro-Armenian bias, but has so far been careful not to put blame on Russia for the status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh.