President Assad: Turkey sending Takfiris to Karabakh after instigating war

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called Turkey the “main instigator” of the Azerbaijan-Armenia military conflict, saying Damascus can confirm that Ankara is sending Takfiri terrorists from northern Syria to operate in the disputed Karabakh region.

According to reports, Assad said in an exclusive interview with Russia’s Sputnik news agency published on Thursday that his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan was “waging wars in different parts of the world in order to divert public opinion at home from his actions, especially after his scandalous relations with Daesh in Syria.”

Assad added that the Takfiri Daesh terror group “used to sell Syrian oil through Turkey under the umbrella of the US Air Force.”

The Syrian leader also criticized Erdogan as “the main instigator and initiator” of the ongoing deadly clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the contested region of Karabakh, stating that Ankara had also deployed Takfiri terrorists to his country as well as Libya in North Africa.

“Let’s be blunt and clear. Erdogan has supported terrorists in Syria, and has been doing so in Libya. He was the main initiator and instigator of the recent conflict that has been going on in Karabakh between Azerbaijan and Armenia. I would, therefore, view his behavior as dangerous for various reasons,” Assad said.

Assad said Damascus can “definitely” confirm the deployment “not because we have evidence, but sometimes if you don’t have evidence you have indicators. Turkey used terrorists coming from different countries in Syria.”

“They used the same method in Libya; they used Syrian terrorists in Libya, maybe with other nationalities. So, it's self-evident and very probable that they are using that method in Karabakh because as I said earlier, they are the ones who started this problem, this conflict; they encouraged this conflict. They want to achieve something and they're going to use the same method,” the Syrian president added.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on October 3 that at least 64 Turkish-backed Syrian militants had been killed in clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over Karabakh region.

The Britain-based war monitor said they were among the 1,200 combatants from pro-Ankara Takfiri groups that Turkey has sent to fight on the Azerbaijani side.

At least 36 of them have been killed in clashes in the past 48 hours alone, the Observatory added, increasing a previous toll of 28 to 64.

SS