Op India
Oct 2 2020
Pakistan has refuted the allegations of its forces fighting alongside Azerbaijan against Armenia made by Armenian foreign minister
As the spectre of a full-blown war between Armenia and Azerbaijan looms around the corner, the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Avet Adonts, said in an interview with Zee News that it won’t be a surprise to find fighters from Pakistan to battle alongside mercenaries operating in Azerbaijan.
Adonts recounted how Pakistanis were present on the ground in the 1990s when war broke out in Nagorno Karabakh, a longstanding bone of contention between the two countries. With the history of Pakistanis interfering the conflict, the foreign minister said that he couldn’t exclude the possibility of fighters from Pakistan joining the Azerbaijan military against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.
Adonts also slammed Turkey for imposing a war on Armenia. “This imposed or instigated war has been a well planned jointly with Turkey,” he said. He further added that the dictatorship of Azerbaijan, supported by Ankara, instigated a large-scale war when its military instruments, aeroplanes, artillery and all other equipment were mobilised to attack Nagorno-Karabakh on the morning of September 27.
Pakistani trolls jump to the defence of Azerbaijan, vowing to wage a jihad against Armenia
Soon after Turkey extended its support to Muslim-majority Azerbaijan against Christian-majority Armenia, the eternal-rental state Pakistan, which shares a close affinity with Turkey and purports itself as a beacon for the Islamic world, jumped into the conflict, blaming Armenia for ratcheting up hostility against Azerbaijan.
Many social media trolls in Pakistan extended their solidarity with Azerbaijan and vowed to fight against Christian-majority Armenia. Several of them claimed that the war between the two countries represented a war between Christianity and Islam and it was the duty of the Pakistanis to join their co-religionists in Azerbaijan to repel the Armenian attack.
However, Pakistan has refuted the allegations of its forces fighting alongside Azerbaijan against Armenia. In a press release, Pakistan reacted saying the media reports claiming its fighters’ are present on the ground in Azerbaijan are “speculative and baseless”.
Though it rejected the allegations of providing ground support to the mercenaries backed by Azerbaijan, it nevertheless supported the Muslim-majority country, asking Armenia to stop its military action to avoid further escalation.
Clashes erupt between Muslim majority Azerbaijan and Christian-majority Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh
Deadly clashes erupted on Sunday between two former Soviet Republics—Azerbaijan and Armenia, over a longstanding territorial dispute for the turbulent Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, a strife-torn region that lies within the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan but is governed by ethnic Armenians.
Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia had declared martial law after Azerbaijan launched an aerial and artillery attack on Sunday, killing several of the military servicemen and injuring hundreds of others.
Azerbaijan, on the other hand, had also imposed martial law, claiming its attack was in retaliation to shelling by Armenia that had reportedly killed five members of a single-family.