Turkey to send soldiers to Azerbaijan
Last week, Armenia signed a "painful agreement" to put an end to the escalation of violence, which had already become a fratricidal war in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, for the Armenians the Republic of Arstaj, for the Azeris another region of Baku.
After more than 40 days of fighting that resulted in hundreds of civilian and military deaths, Nikol Pashinian, the Armenian prime minister, decided to sign an armistice. This gesture has been taken by the Armenians as a "betrayal".
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh has also been the scene of foreign interference, first of all by Turkey, which supports the Azeris.
A further sign of this support, despite the fact that the war conflict has ended, has been the sending of Turkish forces to Azerbaijan for one year. This has been declared and approved by the Turkish parliament on Monday.
The transfer of these soldiers from Ankara to Baku means a strong foothold in the Caucasus region and achieving economic ambitions that Erdogan has set for the region, as it is a key strategic point on the gas route to Europe.
According to an expert of the Al-Ahram Centre, quoted by Al- Ain, Erdogan's reasons for sending troops are in the economic objectives that move the Turkish side. Azerbaijan provides Ankara with 60 per cent of its gas needs, and Erdogan wants to increase this to 80 per cent or more, until it ceases to depend on Russia.
Another analyst, quoted by the same source, states that Erdogan's strategy is to take advantage of this power vacuum left by the US elections in the White House until Joe Biden formally takes over as US president-elect on 20 January.
To this end Turkey is deploying its tentacles in all the territories where there is a conflict: Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh, the eastern Mediterranean...
The Western countries, led by France, expressed their displeasure at Ankara's efforts to inflame tension in the Caucasus, while Erdogan declared his hostility to Armenia in the renewed historical conflict with Azerbaijan, which has claimed the lives of over 30,000 people.
The Turkish parliament's approval comes after Armenia and Azerbaijan signed an agreement to end the fighting in the Moscow-sponsored Nagorno-Karabakh region and the bloodshed that flowed in the worst clashes in that region in decades.
Russian intervention
Despite being a member of the OSCE's Minsk Group, Russia has played a role between two positions: being neutral, but also supporting its Armenian ally.
In total, according to the defence ministry, Russia will send 1,960 military, 90 armed vehicles and 380 units of cars and special equipment to the Karabakh enclave. The first Il-76 military transport planes have already departed from Ulyanovsk airport.
Ilham Aliyev, the Azeri president, in turn pointed out that Turkey, which has supported Baku in the conflict, will also participate together with Russia in the peacekeeping task. The president pointed out that the agreement signed envisages the withdrawal of the Armenian army from three regions: the Agdam district by 20 November, the Kalbajar region by 15 November and the Lachin region by 1 December.