Armenian President Armen Sarkissian stated that Turkey intervened in the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh pursuing its own goals. One of such long-term tasks is pressure on Europe.
According to Sargsyan, Turkey’s influence on Azerbaijan is enormous now. Having promised Baku assistance in a military solution to the conflict, Ankara expects in exchange to strengthen its military and political presence in the neighboring country.
“Turkey not only wants to protect its oil pipelines in Azerbaijan, but also to manage them. The West must understand that Turkey controls gas and oil in Azerbaijan, which will go from Central Asia towards Europe. And Ankara’s complete control over energy resources from the Caspian will lead to the fact that Europe in this sense will become a hostage of Turkey”, – Sargsyan said.
“It was asserted that Armenia intended to strike at the oil and gas infrastructure on the territory of Azerbaijan. But this is nonsense. If the Armenians were ready to strike, it should have been done 20 years ago, to show that without Armenia it is impossible to build a pipeline. But the Armenians did not do this, the pipe was built, and in 20 years not a single bullet flew towards this pipe. And the Azerbaijanis have made billions on it, bought weapons that destroy Armenian children and grandmothers”.
He also questioned Ankara’s assertion that Turkey, represented by Azerbaijanis, protects its ethnic brothers.
“But Russia also has ethnic brothers – Slavs – all over Europe. And in Turkey, ethnic brothers go as far as Mongolia and China. Will they lead the same way if they think that something threatens the ethnic brothers?” – noted Sargsyan.