Erdogan keeping a Turkish tradition of crimes against Armenians (5 – 5)

Mahmud al-Batakoshi

In this new and last episode of our series on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Armenians, we will focus on the crimes the Turkish president committed against this people.

Turkish authorities forcibly evicted Armenians from some parts of Syria. They released criminals from jails and gave them the green light to attack them.

Turkey also formed special militias to accompany Armenians deported to Aleppo. Some of the most horrific crimes were committed during these journeys. The criminals even killed those who wanted to take some rest from travel.

Outside Syria, Erdogan also worked to sow tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia, two countries that have a border dispute already. The Turkish president supplied Azerbaijan with arms. A senior Turkish military official said recently that all Turkish arms were at the service of Azerbaijan.

Erdogan cemented his military ties with Azerbaijan greatly in the past few years. In November 2019, the Turkish parliament approved a military cooperation agreement with Azerbaijan.

The agreement will enhance military cooperation between the two countries and increase Turkish military exports to Azerbaijan.

It opens the door for more cooperation between Ankara and Baku in the manufacture, maintenance and procurement of arms. The agreement also increases logistic cooperation between the two countries.

There is, meanwhile, strong evidence that Turkey is involved in stoking tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This forced the Russian intelligence to accuse its Turkish counterpart of playing a role in increasing the tension in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.