Russia has never considered Turkey a strategic ally, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with a local radio station yesterday.
“We have never considered Turkey as our strategic ally. It [Turkey] is a close partner, that partnership has strategic nature in many areas”, Lavrov was quoted as saying by the Armenian news agency Armenpress.
Following the resumption of hostilities in Artsakh between the indigenous Armenians and the Turkish-sponsored Azerbaijani military and Syrian jihadists, an agreement was reached in Moscow on October 10 between the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan for a cessation of hostilities in the conflict zone for humanitarian purposes.
However, a few minutes after the agreement entered into force, Azerbaijan kicked off the fighting again.
The Russian Foreign Minister said that his country disagrees with Turkey's involvement over the ongoing conflict in Artsakh.
"We do not agree with the position expressed by Turkey, which has also been expressed several times by [Azerbaijani] President [Ilham] Aliyev," Lavrov said in the interview.
Turkey fully supports Azerbaijan and its goal of capturing land that they call "Armenian-occupied territories," which ignores that the Armenians have been living in Artsakh for over 2,500 years as the ethnic majority.
Ankara says it has not been directly involved in the fighting, as Baku has not requested such participation.
Lavrov said a military solution to the Artsakh conflict was "unacceptable" and said Turkey should be "transparent" in its actions.
