Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Turkish Parliament Approves Peacekeepers for Azerbaijan
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 3 years ago on
November 17, 2020

Share

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s parliament on Tuesday granted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government permission to deploy peacekeepers to Azerbaijan to monitor a cease-fire deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia that aims to end the conflict in the region.

In a show of hands, legislators voted in favor of a one-year mandate allowing the government to send troops to Azerbaijan, where they would observe possible violations of the truce from a joint Turkish-Russian monitoring center. The cease-fire ended six weeks of intense fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Erdogan’s government would determine the number of troops to be sent and it wasn’t immediately clear how many the country planned to deploy. The motion states that civilian personnel could also be deployed as part of the peacekeeping mission.

Last week, the defense ministers of Russia and Turkey signed a memorandum to create a joint monitoring center in Azerbaijan, although technical details of the mission are still being worked out.

Azerbaijan has been pressing for its ally Turkey, which has supported Baku in the conflict, to take an active role in the peace talks and was the first to announce its involvement in the monitoring of the cease-fire agreement.

Russian officials have said that Ankara’s involvement will be limited to the work of the monitoring center on Azerbaijani soil, and Turkish peacekeepers wouldn’t go to Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said the center will operate remotely, using drones and other technical means to monitor possible violations.

The Motion for the Deployment in Azerbaijan Was Backed by Four Out of Five Parties

The mandate further extends Turkey’s military engagements stretching from the Middle East to Africa. The country, which has been trying to craft itself a role as a regional power, has sent troops to Iraq and Syria to battle Kurdish militants and to Libya where its presence helped change the balance of a conflict there in favor of the Tripoli-based government. Ankara also maintains a military presence in Qatar, Somalia and on Cyprus and has peacekeepers in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Africa and the Balkans.

The motion for the deployment in Azerbaijan was backed by four out of five parties in Turkey’s parliament. Erdogan’s government said the Turkish peacekeepers were crucial for the region’s peace and welfare and for Turkey’s national interests.

“Turkey and Azerbaijan who regard themselves as one state and two people, will continue to struggle together for their independence and future,” said Ismet Yilmaz, who heads the parliamentary defense committee. “It is our historic and strategic responsibility to ensure that (Turkish troops) take up duty at the joint center to maintain the cease-fire and prevent violations.”

Ahad Andican, a legislator from the nationalist opposition Good Party, said the Turkish troop presence would help prevent Armenian attempts to “rearm.”

Russia, which negotiated the cease-fire, is sending about 2,000 peacekeeping troops under a five-year mandate.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

These Two Fresno Pacific Students Faced Challenges. They’ll Graduate on Saturday.

DON'T MISS

Crawford Goes 7 Innings, Wong Has 3 Hits, and Red Sox Beat Giants

DON'T MISS

WNBA Teams Look for Bigger Arenas When Caitlin Clark Comes to Town

DON'T MISS

Biden Expands Two National Monuments in California Significant to Tribal Nations

DON'T MISS

Boxer Ryan Garcia Denies Using Performance-Enhancing Drugs After Beating Devin Haney

DON'T MISS

Yamamoto Shines Again as Dodgers Blank Diamondbacks

DON'T MISS

Peloton Cutting About 400 Jobs Worldwide; CEO McCarthy Stepping Down

DON'T MISS

Senators Want Limits on Government’s Use of Facial Recognition Technology for Airport Screening

DON'T MISS

Biden Says ‘Order Must Prevail’ on Campuses, but He Won’t Send National Guard

DON'T MISS

Police Dismantle UCLA Tent Camp, Take Pro-Palestinian Protesters Into Custody

UP NEXT

Police Dismantle UCLA Tent Camp, Take Pro-Palestinian Protesters Into Custody

UP NEXT

Fresno State’s Randa Jarrar Dragged Out of Event Featuring Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik

UP NEXT

Biden’s Historic Marijuana Shift Is His Latest Election Year Move for Young Voters

UP NEXT

Protesters Urge Olympic Officials to Limit Israel’s Paris Games Role

UP NEXT

The Latest | In Israel, Blinken Pushes Hamas to Agree on Gaza Cease-Fire Deal

UP NEXT

What Marijuana Reclassification Means for the United States

UP NEXT

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Vows to Force a Vote on Ousting House Speaker Mike Johnson

UP NEXT

Protesters Clash at UCLA After Police Arrest 300 Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators in New York City

UP NEXT

Dems: We Will Save GOP Speaker Johnson’s Job if Republicans Try to Oust Him

UP NEXT

Hush Money Trial Enters 3rd Week, Begins With Gag Order Ruling and $9K Fine for Trump

Biden Expands Two National Monuments in California Significant to Tribal Nations

28 mins ago

Boxer Ryan Garcia Denies Using Performance-Enhancing Drugs After Beating Devin Haney

34 mins ago

Yamamoto Shines Again as Dodgers Blank Diamondbacks

38 mins ago

Peloton Cutting About 400 Jobs Worldwide; CEO McCarthy Stepping Down

45 mins ago

Senators Want Limits on Government’s Use of Facial Recognition Technology for Airport Screening

1 hour ago

Biden Says ‘Order Must Prevail’ on Campuses, but He Won’t Send National Guard

1 hour ago

Police Dismantle UCLA Tent Camp, Take Pro-Palestinian Protesters Into Custody

2 hours ago

Biden Stays Quiet Amid Gaza Protests, College Police Clashes

2 hours ago

This Classically Handsome Kitty Loves to Play with Anything That Rolls

Animals /

5 hours ago

Turbo Lag, Whale Tails, Widowmakers: Celebrating 50 Years of the Legendary Porsche 930

5 hours ago

These Two Fresno Pacific Students Faced Challenges. They’ll Graduate on Saturday.

Commencements ceremonies aren’t stories — but the people walking across the stage are. Fresno Pacific News At Fresno Pacific University, 9...
Local Education /

3 mins ago

Local Education /
3 mins ago

These Two Fresno Pacific Students Faced Challenges. They’ll Graduate on Saturday.

19 mins ago

Crawford Goes 7 Innings, Wong Has 3 Hits, and Red Sox Beat Giants

27 mins ago

WNBA Teams Look for Bigger Arenas When Caitlin Clark Comes to Town

28 mins ago

Biden Expands Two National Monuments in California Significant to Tribal Nations

34 mins ago

Boxer Ryan Garcia Denies Using Performance-Enhancing Drugs After Beating Devin Haney

38 mins ago

Yamamoto Shines Again as Dodgers Blank Diamondbacks

45 mins ago

Peloton Cutting About 400 Jobs Worldwide; CEO McCarthy Stepping Down

1 hour ago

Senators Want Limits on Government’s Use of Facial Recognition Technology for Airport Screening

MENU

CONNECT WITH US

Search

Send this to a friend