Two ‘Le Monde’ journalists injured in bombing attributed to Azeri forces
French President Emmanuel Macron has assured that his country has information that shows the arrival in the Nagorno Karabakh region, via Turkey, of Syrian fighters belonging to “jihadist groups”, thus confirming the allegations made by Armenia.
“Today we have reliable information that indicates that Syrian fighters from jihadist groups have crossed through Gaziantep”, a Turkish border town, “to reach the Nagorno Karabakh theater of operations”, where since Sunday the fighting between the Armenian forces has taken place. and those of Azerbaijan, Macron has declared.
In the opinion of the French president, “this is a very serious new event, which changes the situation.” It has also held Azerbaijan, which is supported by Turkey, responsible for the latest events. “I want to be very clear, on Sunday the bombings that were launched from Azerbaijan had, according to our understanding, no justification,” he said.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian had previously denounced that Azerbaijan and Turkey were fighting in Nagorno Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region but mostly Armenian and self-proclaimed independent, “with the help of terrorist mercenaries.”
“Therefore, the Nagorno Karabakh front is the front of civilization. Nagorno Karabakh is fighting against international terrorism,” added Pashinian.
In recent days, several international media have reported the presence of Syrian fighters, allegedly members of the rebel groups that Turkey supports in northern Syria, in Nagorno Karabakh.
Thus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported, citing “reliable sources”, that in the last 48 hours these “Syrian mercenaries” have been involved in the fighting, for which at least 28 have died and another 62 they have been injured and are missing. In addition, he pointed out that there are also Syrian fighters of Armenian origin fighting on the side of Yerevan.
For its part, Azerbaijan has denied both Turkey’s backing in this offensive and the presence of Syrian mercenaries. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has denied that the authorities are bringing Syrian fighters to Azerbaijan for use in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and has attributed the accusation to a “foreign media smear campaign” promoted by Armenia.
“There is no doubt that Armenia is behind these accusations, which are not based on any fact and are disseminated in the form of interviews with fictitious people,” said Leila Abdulaieva, the Chief of Press of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry. the APA agency.
TWO FRENCH JOURNALISTS INJURED
On the other hand, two French journalists who work for ‘Le Monde’ have been injured this Thursday in a bombing in the town of Martuni, which they had come to cover the conflict, as reported by the French newspaper. The Armenian Foreign Ministry has accused Azerbaijan of the bombing. Two Armenian journalists were also reportedly injured.
In this sense, Macron announced upon his arrival at the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels that the crisis center of the Foreign Ministry is already organizing his repatriation. “There is a medicalized plane ready to leave” but before that “we are doing everything possible to stabilize the wounded at the scene before carrying out their evacuation,” he said.
