Tsarizm has reported extensively on Turkish expansion of influence in its near abroad in recent years, from the Syrian civil war, to North Africa, and now to Central Asia in the Caucasus, where Ankara is backing the Islamic nation of Azerbaijan against its fight with Christian Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a frozen conflict of the Soviet Union.
Today, Turkey took the tension to greater heights by declaring any attack against Azerbaijan is an attack against Turkey, the former home of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey is a NATO ally and any attack on Turkey could trigger an Article 5 treaty response; in other words, require the U.S. to respond to Ankara’s aid.
An attack on Azerbaijan is equal to aggression against Ankara, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party Deputy Chairman Numan Kurtulmus said Tuesday, reported Russian state news agency TASS.
“Any attack by Armenia on an Azerbaijani settlement is equal to an attack on a Turkish settlement. Turkey expects that the international community will not act hypocritically, will put an end to Armenia’s provocative outbursts and will support the just actions of Azerbaijan,” he said, according to Sabah newspaper.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier in the day that his country is ready to support Azerbaijan in the conflict both at the negotiating table and on the battlefield. “There is only one solution [to this problem]. Armenia will withdraw from Azerbaijani territories that it has occupied. This problem will not be resolved unless the withdrawal,” Anadolu news agency quoted him as saying.
As we have said before, old belligerents are lining up once again on the battlefields of old.
The Deep State wants to continue to enlarge NATO into this region of the world — a fool’s errand if we ever saw one.