We Are Facing the Real Danger of Direct Conflict with Turkey: Naira Zohrabyan

The strength of the weapons being used in the Turkish-Azerbaijani joint military exercises is simply unprecedented. This was stated by Naira Zohrabyan, a member of the ‘Prosperous Armenia’ faction in the National Assembly, on her Facebook page.

“The Turkish-Azerbaijani joint military exercises began in Nakhchivan and the regions bordering Artsakh. It must be noted that the power of the weapons being used in these exercises is simply unprecedented. One thing is clear: for the first time, and not to refer back to the previous century, we are facing the real danger of direct conflict with Turkey. Failing to realize this would at least be political infantilism,” she writes.

The second evident observation is that if Turkey previously had its military involvement in Northern Cyprus, its military ambitions now clearly serve a much broader geographical scope. That country has stationed its armed forces in northern Syria, created a military base in western Libya, and has obvious aspirations towards the maritime shelf of Greece and the southern regions of Bulgaria. This is, of course, part of Turkey's pan-Turkist strategic roadmap.

Against this backdrop, Erdoğan's press secretary stated yesterday, following a phone conversation between Putin and Erdoğan, where Putin highlighted the unacceptability of any actions that would contribute to the escalation of tensions, that “Turkey is full of determination to pursue Azerbaijan’s interests to the end, regardless of the source of threats, be it Armenia, Russia, or any other country.”

Here, I believe it is clear that the “key word” is Russia. From the scale of such joint Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercises and the extreme rhetoric of the political elites of these countries, it is evident that we are now facing a new scale of challenges, and the situation could become unmanageable at any moment.

I understand that the “White Shorja” party is currently the most relevant topic, but I hope that our foreign and defense agencies have calculated and are ready for the real risks and challenges posed by these Turkish-Azerbaijani exercises. Otherwise, let’s not say otherwise. Let’s just note that today, the Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercises have commenced,” she concluded.